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LAW AND CONTRACT DIVISION, 

C. M. AN3TETT, 

CHIEF. 



THE 
NATIONAL 



DEMOCRATIC PARTY 



ITS HISTORY, PRINCIPLES, ACHIEVEMENTS, 
AND AIMS. 

BY 

HON. WILLIAM L. WILSON, LL.D., 



w 

MEMBER OF CONGRESS, 



LATE PRESIDENT WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY. 



WITH SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THE POSITION OF THE 
PARTY ON THE LIVING ISSUES OF TO-DAY 



BY THE FOLLOWING AUTHORITIES: 

HON. JOHN G. CARLISLE, Speaker Nat. House of Reps.; Hon. JEFFER- 
SON CHANDLER, LL.D.; Hon. WM. L. TRENHOLM, Compt'r of the 
Currency; Hon. JAMES L. PUGH, U. S. Senator; Hon. COURTLAND 
C. MATSON, M. C; Hon. WM. R. COX, Ex-M. C; Hon. WM. S. 
HOLMAN, M. C; Hon. WM. M. SPRINGER, M. C.j Hon. NEW- 
TON C. BLANCHARD, M. C; Gen. JOHN C. BLACK, U. S. 
Com'r of Pensions; Hon. HILARY A. HERBERT, M. C; Hon. 
PERRY BELMONT, M. C; Hon. WADE HAMPTON, 
U. S. Senator; Hon. BENTON McMILLIN, M. C. 



PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. 



H. L. HARVEY & CO, Publishers, , r §i 

i BALTIMORE, MD. 



C. i.l. A 






A I) O- T^> ~1 ilON. 



CHIEF. 



Copyright, 1888, by J. M. Morrison. 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



L/W 



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INTRODUCTION 



/"\URS is a government by the people. In all its 
^ departments it is administered by their agents, 
chosen from their ranks, and chosen by themselves, 
either directly or indirectly. 

Under such a government, political parties necessarily 
arise either as representatives of some particular theory 
of government, or as advocates of some special or 
temporary policy. 

The student of the history of the first century of 
our national existence, cannot fail to be strongly im- 
pressed by the indestructible vitality of the Democratic 
Party. It, alone of all parties, has a history co-ex- 
tensive with that of the Federal Constitution, and its 
most unreasoning foe will scarcely claim that it shows 
as yet any symptoms of dissolution or decay. This is 
not accidental. It can have no other rational explanation 
than that the party has been, from the beginning, the 
guardian and defender of some fundamental principle, 
or principles, of free government, in whose truth and 
permanence it has found its life and its growth. 

The volume herewith presented is designed to trace 
the history of the National Democatic Party from the 
adoption of our Federal Constitution to the present 
time, and to offer discussion of many of the great 



IV. INTRODUCTION. 

public questions of the day, by gentlemen of recog- 
nized prominence in its ranks. 

While each writer has exercised the largest liberty 
in the treatment of the subject assigned him, and is, 
in a strict sense, alone responsible for the views expressed 
in his paper, the aim has been to secure for every 
topic a writer of acknowledged fitness and ability ; who 
writes as a Democrat, and who has enjoyed such im- 
mediate contact with the questions discussed by him, 
in the public service, as to give special weight and 
freshness to the views he may present. It is believed 
that such a volume will prove both timely and valuable. 

The Presidental Campaign now about to open prom- 
ises to involve, more than any campaign of recent times, 
the education of the people on questions of public poli- 
cies. A clear understanding of these policies and of 
the position of parties with regard to them, is clearly 
the condition of intelligent suffrage. 

We are too apt to believe that our form of govern- 
ment is the natural and the easy one. Such is not 
the teaching of history. Sir Henry Maine, the most 
thorough student of institutions in our day, has correctly 
declared that popular government has hitherto shown 
itself the most fragile of all governments, the least able 
to thrust its roots into any soil, and consequently the 
most dependent upon wise, thoughtful and sagacious 
statesmanship. The United States entered upon exist- 
ence under all the doubts and misgivings that arose 
from the short-lived and turbulent existence of demo- 
cratic government in the past. 



INTRODUCTION. V 

That we have dissipated those doubts and misgivings 
and have actually turned the tide in the direction of 
democratic institutions among all the enlightened peoples 
of the world, is surely ground for confidence and patriotic 
rejoicing, but not for any relaxation of vigilance or for 
any trifling with the rights and duties of citizenship. 

If this volume shall aid in the work of political educa- 
tion ; if it shall aid in spreading clearer ideas of the 
principles of the National Democratic Party, and above 
all, if it shall inspire the members of that party with a 
higher devotion to those principles and a more faithful 
and unswerving application of them to the public service, 
it will accomplish fully its mission. 

The task of the editor has in no sense involved any 
revision of the work of other contributors, and it is due 
to him to say that his own part of the work has been 
done under the pressure of duties as heavy and exact- 
ing as ever fall to the lot of a public servant. 

WM. L. WILSON. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

View of Washington, Frontispiece 

Hon. Wm. L. Wilson, . 16 

President Jefferson, 81 

" Madison, 96 

" Monroe, 102 

" Jackson, . 114 

" Van Buren, 130 

" Tyler, 137 

" Polk, 144 

Hon. Thos. H. Benton, 154 

President Pierce, 160 

" Buchanan, 168 

Hon. Stephen A.Douglas, 177 

" Thomas A. Hendricks, 177 

" Saml. J. Randall, 196 

" Saml. J. Tilden, 209 

General Winfield S. Hancock, 209 

Hon. Wm. R. Morrison, 215 

President Cleveland, 223 

Hon. S. S. Cox, • • . . 229 

" Allen G. Thurman, 233 

11 Jeff. Chandler, 240 

" John G. Carlisle, 271 

" Wm. L. Trenholm, 311 

" James L. Pugh, 338 

" C. C Matson, 363 

" W. R. Cox, * 375 

" Wm. S. Holman, 412 

" Wm. M. Springer, 472 

" N. C. Blanchard, 487 

General John C. Black, 500 

Hon. Hilary A. Herbert, 514 

" Perry Belmont, 573 

11 Wade Hampton, 596 

" Benton McMillin, 623 

vii 



CONTENTS 



HISTORY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

By Hon. WILLIAM L. WILSON, LL.D., 

Member of Congress; 

Late President of the University of West Virginia. 



Page 



CHAPTER I. 17 

EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 

CHAPTER II. 33 

HISTORY UNDER WASHINGTON. 

CHAPTER III. 67 

HISTORY UNDER JOHN ADAMS. 

CHAPTER IV. So 

HISTORY UNDER JEFFERSON. 

CHAPTER V. 96 

HISTORY UNDER MADISON. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page 
CHAPTER VI. 102 

HISTORY UNDER MONROE. 

CHAPTER VII. 109 

HISTORY UNDER JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 114 

HISTORY UNDER JACKSON. 

CHAPTER IX. 130 

HISTORY UNDER VAN BUREN. 



CHAPTER X. 
HISTORY UNDER HARRISON AND TYLER. 



i37 



CHAPTER XI. 144 

HISTORY UNDER POLK. 

CHAPTER XII. 154 

HISTORY UNDER TAYLOR AND FILLMORE. 

CHAPTER XIII. 161 

HISTORY UNDER PIERCE. 

CHAPTER XIV. 169 

HISTORY UNDER BUCHANAN. 

CHAPTER XV. 176 

HISTORY UNDER LINCOLN. 

CHAPTER XVI. l8 4 

HISTORY UNDER JOHNSON. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS, xi 

Page 
CHAPTER XVII. 197 

HISTORY UNDER GRANT. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 208 

HISTORY UNDER HAYES. 

CHAPTER XIX. 214 

HISTORY UNDER GARFIELD AND ARTHUR 

CHAPTER XX. 222 

HISTORY UNDER CLEVELAND. 



PRINCIPLES OF THE PARTY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. ITS TRUE 

INTERPRETATION. 

By Hon. Jefferson Chandler. 

CHAPTER II. 

THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 

By Hon. John G. Carlisle, 

Speaker National House of Representatives. 

CHAPTER III. 
THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 
By Hon. William L. Trenholm, 
Comptroller of the Currency, U. S. Treasury Department. 



Page 
241 



270 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page 
CHAPTER IV. 339 

LABOR AND CAPITAL. 

By Hon. James L. Pugh, 

U. S. Senator. 

CHAPTER V. 362 

PENSIONS. 

By Hon. Courtland C. Matson, 

Chairman Committee on Invalid Pensions, National House 

of Representatives. 

CHAPTER VI. 374 

REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE, 

By Hon. William R. Cox, 

Chairman of the Committee on the Civil Service of the 

National House of Representatives in the 

Forty-ninth Congress. 

CHAPTER VII. 4 , 3 

THE PUBLIC LANDS. 

By Hon. William S. Holman, 

Chairman Committee on Public Lands, National House 

of Representatives. 

CHAPTER VIII. 473 

THE TERRITORIES. 

By Hon. William M. Springer, 

Chairman Committee on Territories, National House 

of Representatives, 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 

By Hon. Newton C. Blanchard, 

Chairman Committee on Rivers and Harbors, National 

House of Representatives. 

CHAPTER X. 
THE MILITARY. 

By General John C. Black, 
United States Commissioner of Pensions. 



Xlli 

Page 
486 



5oi 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE NAVY. 

By Hon. Hilary A. Herbert, 

Chairman Committee on Naval Affairs, National House 

of Representatives. 

CHAPTER XII. 

OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 

By Hon. Perry Belmont, 

Chairman Committee on Foreign Affairs, National House 

of Representatives. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SOUTH. 

By Hon. Wade Hampton, 

U. S. Senator. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

By Hon. Benton McMillin, M. C. 



515 



572 



597 



622 







WILLIAM L. WILSON. 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 



WHEN the doors of the Federal Convention at 
Philadelphia were thrown open, on the seven- 
teenth day of September, 1787, and the Constitution 
framed and proposed by the delegates from the States 
in attendance was made public, it was found to be 
not an amendment of the existing articles of Confed- 
eration but a new and complete scheme for a Federal 
Government. 

By its concluding article it was to become operative 
whenever ratified by the convention of nine of the 
States among the States ratifying it. When it was 
discovered that two of the four delegates from Mas- 
sachusetts had refused to sign the Constitution, two 
also of the three delegates from New York, and 
four of the seven from Virginia, it was made mani- 
fest that the adoption of the new form of govern- 
ment was by no means assured, and that its fate 
was most uncertain in the large States of the Con- 
federation. 

As we review the history of the contests over the 

adoption of the Constitution in these three States, it 

is equally manifest that, both in New York and 

Virginia, whatever may be the fact as to Massachu- 

2 (17) 



1 8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRARIC PARTY. 

setts, a very decided majority in the beginning re- 
ceived the new plan of government with disfavor and 
opposition. 

It was upon this great question of the ratification 
of the Constitution that the first division of the peo- 
ple of the United States into parties may be said to 
have occurred, although the grounds of opposition 
were by no means the same in all the States. 

Those who favored the new scheme of government 
assumed the name of Federalists ; those who opposed 
its adoption were called Anti-Federalists. It has been 
said with much force that the latter name is not a 
descriptive one, as the opponents of the Constitution 
were made up, as a rule, of those who were not so 
much opposed to a federal as to a National govern- 
ment, and the arguments on which they relied, in all 
the states, were largely drawn from the dangers to 
individual liberty and local government from the cen- 
tralizing and national character, as they contended, of the 
new constitution. 

The first State to ratify the Constitution was Dela- 
ware, and that by a unanimous vote, on the seventh 
day of December 1789. Pennsylvania followed five 
days after by a vote of two to one. When we read 
the names of the delegates from these two States to 
the Convention that framed the Constitution, we readily 
see the explanation of their prompt and decisive action. 
Among the delegates from Delaware were John Dick- 
inson and George KReed, while Pennsylvania appeared 



EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 1 9 

in the person of the venerable Benjamin Franklin, 
associated with whom were Thomas Mifflin, Robert 
Morris, George Clymer, Jared Ingersoll, James Wilson 
and Gouverneur Morris. 

Two of the remaining States — New Jersey and 
Georgia — ratified the Constitution unanimously, and in 
the Conventions of Connecticut and Maryland the op- 
position could muster but a small vote. 

The Convention in Massachusetts met January 9, 
1788. The success of the new Government was staked 
upon the action of that commonwealth, and the friends 
of the Constitution soon learned that upon a direct 
vote her voice would be against ratification. Votes 
must be won over or the cause was lost, and the cry 
was even raised in the Boston Gazette that money 
was subscribed to corrupt members of the Convention 
who opposed the Constitution. But this seems to have 
been a false clamor, for the plan actually devised to 
secure a majority in favor of ratification was so well 
adapted to the emergency that it was equally effectual 
in turning the scales in other States. That plan recog- 
nized the fact that many most ardent patriots, as 
anxious as any of their fellow citizens to escape from 
the imbecility and hopeless decline of the Confedera- 
tion still hesitated about accepting the Constitution, 
without incorporating additional restraints upon the 
powers of the Federal Government. It accordingly pro- 
posed to combine with ratification the recommedation 
of such Amendments as seemed effective of this 
purpose. 



20 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Govenor John Hancock, President of the Convention, 
whose position had been in doubt, agreed to bring 
foward the proposition in the Convention. He was 
earnestly supported by Samuel Adams, the "helms- 
man of the Revolution, at its origin," who was also 
slow in favoring a National Government. 

The Amendments matured, as Bancroft tells us, in 
secret council, by Hancock, Adams, Theophilus Parsons 
and other resolute and trusty men were offered as 
Hancock said, " for the removing the fears and quiet- 
ing the apprehensions of the good people of the 
Commonwealth, and the more effectual guarding against 
an undue administration of the Federal Government." 
Nevertheless the final vote was a close one, and when 
taken on the sixth day of February showed one 
hundred and sixty-eight in the negative, to one-hundred 
and eighty-seven, in the affimative. 

The tide was now turned, but the fight in the 
Virginia Convention, which assembled in Richmond on 
the second day of June 1788, surpassed that in any 
of the States in the greatness of the combatants, both 
for and against the Constitution. The opponents of 
ratification were marshalled under that incomparable 
leader Patrick Henry, whose speeches in the Conven- 
tion, even in the imperfect reports preserved to us, 
have always been a puzzle to those who accepted the 
common idea that he was merely an unlettered child 
of nature, endowed with a miraculous gift of oratory ; 
an idea but recently dissipated in his admirable bi- 



EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 21 

ography by Professor Moses Colt Tyler, in which he 
is shown by proof that can not be assailed to have 
been a well trained lawyer and an unusually well 
educated man. 

Henry was ably seconded by George Mason and 
Grayson, and had less active lieutenants in James 
Monroe, John Tyler Sr. and Benjamin Harrison. 

The friends of ratification were led by Madison, 
who was supported by Edmund Pendleton, Govenor 
Randolph, John Marshall, (afterward Chief Justice) 
Henry Lee, ("Light-horse Harry") Bushrod Washing- 
ton, nephew of the General, and afterwards the well- 
known Justice Washington of the U. S. Supreme Court. 
George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the famous Chancellor, who numbered among 
his law pupils Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and 
Henry Clay, associated with these on both sides were 
men of scarcely less ability and weight in their Com- 
monwealth, but were names little known to out- 
side history. It was truly a war of giants, and in the 
opposing ranks were thus found nearly all that was 
distinguished for ability, patriotic service or legal 
learning in the State. 

Three of her great names alone are missing. Wash- 
ing had been President of the Federal Convention, 
had heartily approved the Constitution. From his re- 
tirement at Mount Vernon he watched with intense 
interest its progress through the several State Conven- 
tions, freely corresponding with its supporters in all 



22 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

sections and never wavering in his faith in its ultimate 
success. His well-known favor was a powerful influ- 
ence not only in Virginia, but in all the States in 
securing its ratification. Richard Henry Lee, the 
polished orator, and mover of the Declaration of In- 
dependence, was a zealous Anti-federalist. 

Thomas Jefferson had been Minister to France for 
the past four years, and from that distant land had 
followed the course of events at home as faithfully 
reputed to him by James Madison and other confi- 
dential correspondents, with the ardent interest of the 
patriot and the friend of liberty. 

At first he had received the draft of the new Con- 
stitution rather coldly, strongly objecting to the omis- 
sion of a Bill of Rights, such as was found in the 
first Constitution adopted by the Commonwealth of 
Virginia, and also to the eligibility of the President. 
At a later date he wrote to Madison, " I wish, with 
all my soul, that the the nine first Conventions may 
accept the new Constitution, to secure us the good 
it contains ; but I equally wish that the four latest 
whichever they may be, may refuse to accede to it, 
till a declaration of rights be annexed ; but no objec- 
tion to the new form must produce a schism in our 
Union." When, however, he heard of the plan adopted 
by Massachusetts, he declared that it was far pref- 
erable and expressed the hope that it would be fol- 
lowed, by the States which were yet to decide. His 
own statement of his position was, "I am not of the 



EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 23 

party of the Federalists ; but I am much further from 
that of the Anti-federalists." His influence was there- 
fore in favor of ratification. The final vote in the 
Convention was reached on the 25th of June, when by 
agreeing to recommend numerous amendments, the 
friends of the Constitution triumphed by a vote of 
eighty-nine to seventy-nine. In no State in the Union 
however, as already indicated, did so large an array 
of great names appear in the negative. 

New Hampshire had already made the Constitution 
operative by ratifying it as the ninth State on the 21st 
of June, but the news of her action had not reached 
Virginia when the vote was taken in the latter State. 

New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina, yet 
remained outside the New Union. 

The North Carolina Convention assembled on the 
2 1st of July, and after some days debate resolved by 
the decisive vote of one hundred and eighty-four to 
eighty-four, to ofTer a Bill of Rights and Amendments and 
adjourn without acting on the question of ratification. In 
order, however, to preserve harmonious relations with 
the new government already established by the ratifi- 
cation of ten States as they supposed, by eleven in 
reality, the Convention recommended to the legisla- 
ture, that whenever Congress passed a law for collect- 
ing an import in the States which had ratified, " this 
State enact a law for collecting a similar import on 
goods imported into this State and appropriate the 
money arrising therefrom to the use of Congress. " 



24 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Rhode Island had declined to take part in the 
Federal Convention, and she too withheld her ratifi- 
cation of the Constitution of her and North Carolina, 
the great historian of the Constitution says, ° Neither 
of the two States which had lingered behind remon- 
strated against the establishment of a new govern- 
ment before their consent, nor did they ask the United 
States to wait for them. The worst that can be said 
of them is, they were late in arriving. " 

The New York Convention met at Poughkeepsie 
in June 17, 1788; Governor Clinton was its president, 
and with Yates and Lansing who had been delegates 
to the Federal Convention led the debate in opposi- 
tion to ratification. 

The name of Alexander Hamilton is so conspicuous 
in this Convention as the Champion of the Constitu- 
tion that it is sometimes forgotten how jealously and 
ably he was supported by John Jay, Chancellor Liv- 
ington, Chief Justice Morris, Duane and others. After 
proposing a conditional adoption, New York, finding 
the Constitution already ratified by a sufficient num- 
ber of States, decided to unite with them, and on 
the 26th of July ratified the Constitution by a vote 
of thirty to twenty-seven, combining with this ratifi- 
cation a Bill of Rights and a list of Amendments 
proposed for the adoption of the new government. 

Thus by the successive ratification of eleven of the 
thirteen States, with the certainty that the two lag- 
gard ones would soon follow, the _ United States pas- 



EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 2$ 

sed from the voluntary league of the Confederation, 
without revenue which is the vital breath of every 
State, and without the means of procuring revenue, 
except by requisition upon the States which it could 
not enforce, without the power to make or enforce 
laws, and rapidly losing all respect at home or 
abroad, to the Federal Union under the Constitution, 
with its power to lay and collect taxes through its 
own officials ; its careful distribution of the powers of 
government into the great departments, legislative, 
executive and judicial ; its power to make and enfore 
the laws authorized by the Constitution and to com- 
mand the obedience of its own people, and the ad- 
miration and respect of all the world. No recital 
however meagre of this great transaction, would be 
complete without some reference to the volume of 
Essay's known as "The Federalist," written chiefly by 
two young statesmen one of New York the other of 
Virginia, to explain and commend to their contem- 
poraries in that great struggle, the new plan of gov- 
ernment, but remaining, to-day, and doubtless deter- 
mined to remain for all time, the most instructive 
commentary upon the Federal Constitution. 

It consists of eighty-five papers in all. Five of 
them were written by Jay, twenty-nine by Madison, 
and fifty-one by Hamilton. 

The best summary of the work of the last two 
may be given in the words of Mr. Bancroft, in his 
History of the Constitution, "Hamilton dwelt on the 



26 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

defects of the Confederation ; the praise-worthy energy 
of the new Federal Government ; its relations to the 
public's defence ; to the functions of the executive ; to 
the judicial department ; to the Treasury ; and to com- 
merce. Himself a friend to the protection of manufactures 
he condemned "exhorbitant duties on imported articles," 
because they "beget smuggling" are "always prejudicial 
to the fair trader;" tend to render "other classes of 
the Community tributary in an improper degree to 
the manufacturing classes," to "give them a premature 
monopoly of the markets;" to "force industry out of 
its most natural channels " and " to oppress the mer- 
chant." 

Madison commented with severe wisdom on its 
plan ; its confirmity to Republican principles ; its 
powers ; its relation to slavery and the slave trade ; 
its mediating office between the Union and the States ; 
its tripartite separation of the departments, and its 
mode of constructing the House of Representatives. 

The Constitution had thus become operative between 
the eleven States which had ratified it, and the duty 
devolved upon Congress to put it into effect. The 
first Wednesday in January, 1789, was appointed for 
the choice of electors of President in the respective 
States; the first Wednesday in February following, for 
casting the electoral votes ; and the first Wednesday 
in March, which in that year was the fourth day of 
the month, for the inauguration of the new Govern- 
ment. In no particular has the Constitution so com- 



EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 2J 

pletely failed to meet the intentions of its framers 
as in its electoral machinery, and this fact deserves 
especial notice in any sketch of the rise and devel- 
opment of political parties in the United States, for 
nothing in our history so clearly shows the inade- 
quate conception then held by the most far-seeing 
statesmen of the play of parties in a government 
like ours, or of the lines along which their organi- 
zation would rapidly develop. The plan first agreed 
upon in the Convention was for a " National Execu- 
tive " to be chosen by Congress, to hold office for 
seven years and to be ineligible for a second term. 
As reported back from the Committee of Detail August 
6, 1787, it was in the mere definite form of a "Pres- 
ident to be elected by ballot by the legislature," 
with the same provisions as to length of term and 
re-eligibility. 

As finally incorporated into the Constitution the plan 
provided for a Vice-President also made four years 
the term of both offices, contained no limitation on 
the re-eligibility of either, and entirely changed the 
manner of their election. Instead of an election by 
Congress, each State was to appoint, in such man- 
ner as its legislature might direct, a number of electors 
equal to the whole number of Senators and Representa- 
tives to which it was entitled, in Congress ; these elec- 
tors were to meet in their respective States and vote by 
ballot for two persons, only one of whom could be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves. The per- 



28 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

son receiving the highest number of votes, if such num- 
ber were a majority of the whole number of electors 
appointed, was to be President ; the person receiving the 
next highest number of the votes, whether a majority 
or not, was to be Vice-President. 

The evident intention of those who devised this 
scheme was that each State would choose a number of 
its wisest and most trusted citizens, who would cast 
their votes for President and Vice-President according 
to their independent and individual judgments. This 
theory lasted through the first three elections only, 
sincQ which time, notwithstanding the Constitutional 
Amendment requiring the electors to designate the per- 
sons voted for, as President or Vice-President as the case 
may be, it has fallen into disfavor and been entirely 
neutralized by the action of our political parties, 
which nominate in advance through their caucuses or 
conventions, the candidate to be voted for, and elec- 
tors are chosen merely to register the will of those 
who select them. Indeed any attempt of an elector 
to do otherwise would' be justly regarded as a high 
breach of faith. 

There was little or no room for the appearance of 
party divisions in the choice of the first President 
and Vice-President. The universal confidence that 
George Washington would be the first President under 
the new Constitution, had, in fact done much to 
reconcile support to that instrument, from many who 
looked npon the powers lodged in the Executive as 



EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 29 

fraught with danger to the liberties of the people. 
The exalted patriotism and tried unselfishness of the 
Father of his Country, were, everywhere, relied upon 
to establish an example of moderation and of fidelity 
to the Constitution and the rights of the people 
which no later Executive would dare to disregard. 
In one State only, to be noted hereafter, did any- 
thing like a party division appear in the vote for 
Vice-President. 

Meanwhile, however, Senators and Representatives in 
Congress had to be selected, and the old antagonisms 
of Federalists and Anti-federalists were here apparent. 
Governor Clinton and Patrick Henry were earnestly striv- 
ing to secure enough votes in Congress to call a Second 
Convention to revise and change the Constitution in the 
manner provided therein. Other Anti-federalists were 
aiming only to secure enough influence to compel the 
adoption of the Amendments deemed essential to limit 
the power of the Federal Government. A very interest- 
ing and faithful account of the progress of the elections 
may be found in Madison's letters, written at the time, 
to Jefferson, Washington and others. The influence of 
Patrick Henry was absolute in the Virginia legislature, 
and at his bidding Madison was thrust outside and 
Richard Henry Lee and William Grayson, Anti-federalists, 
were chosen Senators. He even went so far as to 
arrange the districts of the State to prevent the election 
of Madison to the House of Representatives, but in this 
he failed, for notwithstanding Monroe was the opposing 



30 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

candidate, Madison appealed directly to the people and 
was successful. 

In New York a factional fight between the two houses 
of the legislature, the one controlled by Clinton, the 
other by Hamilton, prevented the choice of electors and 
of Senators, so that the State did not participate in the 
first election or in the organization of the first Senate. 
In both Virginia and New York, a majority of the dele- 
gates chosen, were Federalists. South Carolina alone 
sent out an Anti-federalist delegation to the House and 
one Anti-federalist Senator. In the other States Feder- 
alists w?re generally chosen. 

Madison wrote from Alexandria, Virginia, on March I, 

1789, to Edmund Randolph, of the contest in his own 

district between Colonel Monroe and himself — 

" Whether I ought to be satisfied or displeased with 
my success I shall hereafter be more able to judge. My 
present anticipations are not flattering. I see in the 
lists of Representatives a very scanty proportion who 
will share in the drudgery of business. And I foresee 
contentions first between Federal and Anti-federal parties, 
and then between Northern and Southern parties, which 
give additional disagreeableness to the prospect." 

After a long wrangle in Congress, the city of New 
York had been selected as the first home of the new 
government. A quorum of the House did not meet 
until the first day of April, 1789. The Senate organized 
on the sixth day of April, and chose John Langdon, of 
New Hampshire, President, to' open and count the elec- 
toral votes, which he immediately proceeded to do in 
the presence of both Houses. Every one of the sixty- 



EARLY DIVISIONS OF SENTIMENT. 3 1 

nine votes cast by the ten States that took part in the 
election, was found to be for George Washington, who 
was accordingly declared elected the first President of 
the United States. John Adams received thirty-four 
votes, less than a majority, but the next highest number, 
and accordingly became Vice-President. In Virginia 
alone did any party division appear in the vote for 
Vice-President ; three of the electors being Anti-feder- 
alists, Patrick Henry among them, cast their votes for 
George Clinton. The remainder of the thirty-five votes 
not cast for Adams, were distributed between no less 
than eleven persons, generally as compliments to local 
favorites, the highest number for any one person being 
nine for John Jay, of New York. 



CHAPTER II. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
WASHINGTON, 1789-1797. 



ALTHOUGH Congress was organized on April 6, 1789, 
Washington was not inaugurated until April 30. The 
Speaker of the First House of Representatives was Fred- 
erick A. Muhlenberg, of Pennsylvania. Its membership 
numbered fifty-nine, and its sessions were public. The 
Senate had, as yet, but twenty members, and sat with closed 
doors. The first need of the new government was revenue, 
hence the first real business brought before the House was 
a proposition introduced by Madison, April 8, before the 
arrival and inauguration of the President, to raise a rev- 
enue by duties on imports and by a tonnage duty on all 
vessels. 

The debate on this, the first tariff bill, was continued for 
many days, and is full of interest and instruction. Madison, 
while earnestly and repeatedly avowing that " Commerce 
ought to be as free as the policy of nations will admit," 
and " labor and industry left at large to find its proper 
objects," was not unwilling to adjust duties so as to favor 
the " infant manufactories " of the country ; and the pre- 
amble of the act, as it finally became a law July 4, 
1789, recited as one of its objects "the encouragement 

and protection of manufactures." But neither in this re- 
3 (33) 



04 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

cital, nor in the debates on the bill, nor in the rates finally 
agreed upon, can we . find countenance for the views and 
policies of those who champion the existing protective 
system. Revenue was uniformly declared to be the chief 
object of the duties laid, and where protection was made 
incidental to it, the rates asked or agreed upon were so 
moderate that they would excite the derision of our latter- 
day protectionists. 

The statesmen who framed our first tariff bill — Madison, 
Fisher Ames, Roger Sherman, and their associates — always 
spoke of the duty imposed upon an article as a tax, and 
as a tax to be paid by the consumer. "The merchant," 
said Sherman, "considers that part of his capital applied 
to the payment of the duties the same as if employed in 
trade, and gets the same profit on it as on the original 
cost of the commodity." 

Hence a leading idea was to adjust the items of the 
tariff so as to make it bear evenly on localities and be just 
in its burdens on individuals ; for " I readily agree," said 
Madison, " that in itself a tax would be unjust and op- 
pressive that did not fall on the citizens according to their 
degree of property and ability to pay it." Spirituous liq- 
uors were conceded to be proper subjects of high taxa- 
tion, both for the sake of revenue and in the interest of 
temperance. It was inevitable that sectional interests and 
opposing views should come into collision in the debate, 
but no divisions into parties were discernible in these dis- 
cussions. 

The agricultural members wanted steel free, but Clymer, 
of Philadelphia, said there was a furnace in that city which, 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.' -- 

with a little aid from the State, had produced 300 tons in 
two years, and so a duty of fifty cents per hundredweight 
was imposed on unwroughl steel, and five per cent, gen- 
erally on manufactures of steel. The salt duty gave rise 
to a lively debate, but the tax on molasses led to the 
warmest discussion. Massachusetts stoutly and success- 
fully resisted the proposal to tax it eight cents per gallon, 
and for three reasons : first, as increasing its cost to the 
consumer; secondly, as crippling her distillers of rum by 
a heavy tax on their raw material ; and lastly, as injuring 
her fisheries by checking the importation of the article, 
for which she exchanged her fish. " The tax," said Ames, 
" operated in two ways : first, as a tax on the raw material, 
which increased the price of stock and narrowed the sale, 
and second, as a tax on an article of consumption." 
"Without the molasses trade is continued, the fishery 
cannot be carried on. They are so intimately connected 
that the weapon which wounds the one will stab the 
other." "If we do not import molasses," said Gerry, "we 
cannot carry on our distilleries or vend our fish." "Any 
impediment to the importation of molasses," said Goodhue, 
"will prevent the exportation of fish." A general duty 
of five per cent., ad valorem, was levied on goods and 
merchandise; wool and tin-plate, however, being among 
the articles excepted from any tax. These special duties 
on a few score articles ranged from 5 to 12J^ per cent 
in the ad valoretns, and were equally moderate when spe- 
cific; as, for example, 10 cents a gallon on distilled spirits, 
Jamaica proof; 18 cents on Madeira wine; I cent a pound 
on brown sugar, 3 cents on loaf sugar, and 2]/ 2 cents on 



36 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

other sugars; 1 cent a pound on nails and spikes; 2J^ 
cents a* gallon on molasses. The average duty under the 
act was equivalent to 8}4 per cent, ad valorem. A ton- 
nage tax was laid that discriminated in favor of Amer- 
ican vessels. 

Later in the session the amendments to the Constitu- 
tion proposed by the States in ratifying it were taken up. 
There were fifty-five in all, but in many cases they were 
substantially identical. As finally agreed upon and offered 
to the States for ratification there were twelve, of which 
ten were promptly adopted and constitute the first ten 
amendments to the Constitution and likewise its Bill of 
Rights. They secured among other things freedom of 
religion; of speech; of the press; the right of petition; 
freedom of the person; and what was most satisfactory 
to those who feared centralization in the new government, 
an explicit declaration that the powers, not granted to the 
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to 
the States, were reserved to the States respectively or to 
the people. The adoption of these amendments satisfied 
the anti-federalists, and little more was heard of the 
proposition for a second convention. 

Laws were passed to organize four executive depart- 
ments, and the first Cabinet, as finally selected, consisted 
of — Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, Secretary of State; Alex- 
ander Hamilton, of New York, Secretary of the Treasury; 
Henry Knox, of Massachusetts, Secretary of War; Edmund 
Randolph, of Virginia, Attorney-General. In this selection 
regard was had to their personal fitness, to locality, and, 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 37 

perhaps, also to their divergence of opinion as to the 
power and scope of the federal government. 

North Carolina ratified the Constitution in November, 
1789, but Rhode Island still sullenly refused to enter the 
door of the Federal Union, and remained without until 
May 9, 1790, when she also ratified it by a majority of 
two votes ; " not, however," says Schouler, " without a 
longer list of proposed amendments than there were 
towns in the State." 

On January 14, 1790, Hamilton sent into Congress his 
first report, which was devoted to the consideration of 
the public debt. As this report was the beginning of a 
series of papers from the Treasury Department from this 
same secretary, it may not be amiss to refer briefly 
to its author. 

Hamilton was exactly thirty-three years of age. He 
was born on the island of Nevis, but some obscurity 
hangs over his parentage, and of his early years little 
is known, except that he manifested supreme ambition 
and a vigor and maturity of mind that were phe- 
nomenal. He came to this country in his sixteenth 
year, and became a student of Kings College, now Colum- 
bia College, New York city, where he early espoused the 
cause of independence both as a writer and a speaker. 
Seldom, if ever, does one find in the collected writings 
of a statesman papers prepared by him when but seven- 
teen or eighteen years of age; yet we still read pam- 
phlets this young collegian hurled at the Tories- amid 
the wonder and applause of patriots, and marvel at the 
strength of his reasoning and the accuracy of his in- 



38 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



formation. From a captain of artillery he was promoted 
to the staff of General Washington with the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel, and served four years as secretary to 
the commander-in-chief, returning to a command in the 
field with an almost ludicrous show of injured dignity, 
when Washington ventured to rebuke him for some lack 
of promptness, although still retaining the confidence and 
friendly interest of his general. ^. 

Few men threw themselves more ardently into the 
movement for a Constitutional Convention, and when New 
York finally agreed to send delegates to such a conven- 
tion he was chosen one of the number. In the Convention 
he favored a form of government thoroughly national and 
centralized, with the English system for its model. He 
advocated a President and Senate chosen by free-holders, 
and holding office during good behavior. He would have 
destroyed the independence of the States by having their 
governors appointed by the President, with power of veto 
on legislation. This is enough to show that he wished 
to establish an aristocratic rather than a democratic re- 
public, with special political privileges vested in property. 
His ideas did not find favor in the Convention, and he 
took little part in its proceedings; but, as already stated, 
no one was more active in working for the ratification 
of the Constitution. He wrote most of the papers of 
the . Federalist '; was indefatigable in his correspondence 
with the friends of the new government in the other 
States, leading the hard fight in New York for ratifica- 
tion against the influence of Governor Clinton, and of 
his own colleagues in the General Convention, Yates and 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



39 



Lansing. The wretched financial straits of the confeder- 
* ation both during and after the war occupied much of 
his thoughts, and his familiarity with these questions 
pointed him out for the difficult position of the first 
Secretary of the Treasury. Congress invited from him the 
series of reports in which he embodied the results of 
his matured reflections. While all marvelled at the 
vigor and brilliancy of his reports, it was not long 
before it was made clear that they were pervaded by 
two general ideas which gave them a unity and con- 
sistency that one party in the country recognized and 
enthusiastically approved, and another as quickly discov- 
ered and as heartily condemned. There is profound 
truth in the saying of Burke, that " the revenue of a 
State is the State;" and no better illustration of this 
truth can be found than in the history of the United 
States, under the Articles of Confederation and under the 
Federal Constitution. The confederation had no revenue 
and no means of commanding a revenue, and was con- 
sequently never a living organism ; the Constitution gave 
to the government which it founded the power to lay 
and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises. The 
measures for dealing with the debt were now to be 
determined, and in that determination was to arise the 
first collision between opposing theories of the govern- 
ment just formed, and of the scope and nature of its 
powers. Until Hamilton began to propose his financial 
legislation to Congress, there was nothing to call forth and 
give union to materials for party division whose existence 
was clearly known. This division was by no means a 



40 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

mere continuance of the old contest for and against the 
Constitution. The question now was, What kind of a 
government had been established? and that question 
very forcibly arose when the new government undertook 
to deal with its debts, its taxes, and its revenues. Most 
of the anti-federalists had been thoroughly reconciled to 
the Constitution as soon as it was put into practice and 
the amendments before referred to adopted by Congress. 
Yet, the very reasons that caused them to oppose the 
Constitution in the beginning would cause them to watch 
the new government's assumption of powers with jealous 
scrutiny. Many of the Federalists had gladly assented 
to these amendments, as giving merely explicit declara- 
tions to limitation, which they believed to be already 
inherent in the Constitution as originally framed, and 
were inclined to be equally jealous of the assumption 
of disputed powers by the government they had been so 
eager to establish. 

Let us now turn to the Reports of the Secretary of the 
Treasury, beginning with that on the Public Credit. With- 
out rehearsing his admirable if somewhat obvious statement 
of the benefits that flow, both to a nation and to its citi- 
zens, from a sacred observance of public faith and the 
establishment of public credit, we may state the result of 
his discussions as follows : He recommended the payment 
in full — principal and interest — of, first, the foreign debt of 
the United States, amounting to $11,710,378.62; secondly, 
of the domestic debt, amounting, liquidated and unliqui- 
dated, to $42,414,085.94, payment to be made to the pres- 
ent holders of the same. Besides the payment of these 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION,. ^ 

two classes of debts he recommended the assumption of 
the debts of the individual States incurred in the common 
defence, estimated to be twenty-five millions of dollars. It 
will thus be seen that he recommended at once to Con- 
gress to assume a debt of about eighty millions of dollars, 
a sum so great that he must necessarily propose some very 
feasible plans for meeting it, that would not impose a 
crushing burden upon the new government. 

It is not necessary to describe these plans further than 
to say that they combined a system of annuities, a system 
of funding the debt at higher or lower rate of interest 
according to the time it was to run ; and of payment of 
part of it in Western lands at twenty cents per acre. As 
it was not proposed immediately to provide for paying 
the interest upon the State debts, his estimates were made 
for a revenue of $2,239,163.09, required to meet the in- 
terest upon the foreign and domestic debt, and $600,000 
for the running expenses of the government. This sum 
was to be obtained by the existing duties on imports and 
tonnage, with the " addition which, without any possible 
disadvantage to trade or agriculture, may be made on 
wines, liquors (including those distilled in the United 
States), teas and coffee." 

It will be observed that a prominent feature in this 
plan was perpetuation of the debt by funding a large part 
of it, at long time, and the secretary himself expressed his 
persuasion that "the proper funding of the present debt 
vj'AI render it a national blessing," disclaiming, however, 
his assent to the position that public debts are public 
benefits, unless their creation be accompanied with the 



42 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

means of extinguishment. He accordingly proposed a 
sinking fund out of the revenues of the post-office, and a 
loan, and intimated his purpose to submit a plan for a 
National Bank in the course of the session. 

On the 4th of March, 1790, he communicated to the 
House a plan for meeting the interest on the State debts, 
which looked to an increase of the duties on articles im- 
ported in foreign bottoms, on sugar, molasses, manufact- 
ured tobacco, spices, salt, and other articles ; but in his 
later report, communicated on December 13, 1790, he 
developed in detail his plan for an excise system in con- 
nection with an increase of the duties on distilled spirits 
imported. 

On December 14, 1790, he communicated to the House 
his plan for a National Bank, beginning with an elaborate 
discussion of the advantages of a National Bank, a con- 
sideration of the objections that had been urged against 
it, following with a detailed plan for a bank, which con- 
templated a combination of a portion of the public debt 
in the formation of its capital, in order " to create a 
capital sufficiently large to be the basis of an extensive 
circulation and an adequate security for it." 

Passing over his Report on the establishment of a Mint, 
which has no connection with our present purpose, we 
come to his celebrated paper on Manufactures, communi- 
cated to the House December 5, 1791. This report, 
which is the most elaborate of all that he made, is often 
referred to as the foundation of our protective system. 
Let it be understood that it is confined to the subject of 
manufactures, and particularly to the means of promoting 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



43 



such as would tend to render the United States inde- 
pendent of foreign nations for military and other essential 
supplies. Frankly declaring that " protective duties evi- 
dently amount to a virtual bounty on the domestic fabrics, 
since by enhancing the charge on foreign articles they 
enable the manufacturers to undersell their foreign com- 
petitors," he looked no further than to a temporary and 
moderate aid to nascent industries, or, as Madison has 
already expressed it, "infant manufactories," believing that 
" the continuation of bounties on manufactures long estab- 
lished must always be of questionable policy, because a 
presumption would arise in every such case that these 
were natural and inherent impediments to success." 

His reason for stimulating the growth of manufactures 
was, "the restrictive regulations, which in foreign markets 
abridge the vent of our increasing surplus of agricultural 
products." 

He never questioned, but, on the contrary, expressly 
averred, that the consumer paid the duties ; and, so far 
from advocating protective duties, in the interest of good 
wages for labor, he reckoned on the scarcity of funds and 
the dearness of labor as among the existing obstacles to 
manufactures, which justified the imposition of duties as 
temporary bounties to them. He rightly argued that the 
protective system would help to do away with the scarcity 
of hands by promoting immigration from abroad, and 
that any dearness of labor, if due to this scarcity, would 
diminish with it and with the use of machinery; or, if 
due also to greater profits, would be no objection, as the 
undertaker could afford to pay the price. It will thus 



44 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



be seen that this report contemplated a system of pro- 
tection radically different from that advocated by the 
Republican party of to-day, and contains admissions and 
declarations utterly at war with the grounds on which 
that party seeks to maintain its system of so-called pro- 
tection. 

These reports fully disclose the purposes which run 
through them. Those purposes were not more financial 
than political. His aim was : First, to establish the credit 
and provide for the debt and annual necessities of the 
government. Second, to bring to the support of the gov- 
ernment the powerful moneyed interest by giving it direct 
pecuniary benefits. 

Hamilton had no faith that the experiment of a govern- 
ment resting on the people could succeed. He aimed to 
make it rest on capital, seeking by his " financial policy," 
as a recent biographer, Mr. Lodge, states it, " to bind the 
existing class of wealthy men, being, at that day, the 
aristocracy bequeathed by provincial times, to the new 
system, and thus, if at all, assure to the property of the 
country the control of the government." 

Such, however, were not the ideas of the men who sat 
in the General Convention. They intended that the Con- 
stitution which they were forming should rest equally and 
justly as to benefits and burdens on all the people; that 
there should be no privileged classes; that the machinery 
of government should not be wrested from its only, rightful 
purpose, the common protection of all citizens, to add to 
the power and wealth of a limited number. Other govern- 
ments had sought to keep the great masses of the people 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. .5 

at unremitting labor by taking from them as from bees 
all their earnings beyond a scanty subsistence. Our 
Constitution was to establish a government resting on 
absolute equality of citizenship. Hence it was both reason- 
able and fitting, that the first leader of opposition to 
Hamilton's plans should be the great statesman who is, 
not undeservedly, known as the Father of the Constitution, 
who was its chief architect, led the splendid fight for its 
ratification in the Virginia Convention, and had been fore- 
most in the House of Representatives in devising the 
means necessary to put it into operation. The biographer 
of Mr. Madison, in the " American Statesmen " series, 
whose extreme partisanship' outstrips, if possible, that of 
the writer of the " Life of Jefferson," in the same series, is 
pleased to treat this antagonism of Mr. Madison to the 
financial policies of Hamilton as a defection from his 
earlier views and position, and a descent from the states- 
man to the politician. 

This is a very unjust view, and has no warrant in the 
facts of history. Any other course would have been 
inconsistent with the previous opinions and utterances of 
Madison and with the whole tenor of his life. There was 
no difference of opinion as to the payment of the foreign 
debt, and the secretary's recommendation as to that was 
unanimously adopted. 

When it came, -however, to the domestic debt this con- 
dition was found to exist. The original holders were 
revolutionary soldiers, or others scarcely less meritorious, 
who had furnished supplies or rendered services to the 
United States, and had received certificates in settlement. 



.46 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



From their ownership the debt had largely passed into 
the hands of speculators, who had paid generally a mere 
nominal price for it. Furthermore, these speculators on the 
first promulgation of Hamilton's report had despatched 
swift couriers all over the country, including trading 
vessels to the South, to buy up the securities from those 
who were as yet uninformed as to that report. This they 
were enabled to do at a few cents on the dollar, whereas 
the securities had at once become valuable in the 
market. 

Hamilton had strongly argued in favor of full payment 
to the present holders of the domestic debt. No matter 
how small the price at which it had been acquired through 
the ignorance or necessities o.f the first holder, his plan 
looked to full payment to the transferees. Undoubtedly 
this waWhe law of the contract, and to a secretary whose 
aim was not less to secure a powerful class of creditors of 
the government than to pay its debts, it seemed wise and 
politic. Madison thought and felt otherwise. He could 
not brook the idea of enriching a greedy and selfish class 
of speculators and passing by the first holders of the debt, 
the soldiers who had fought for independence, the farmers 
whose supplies had fed and clothed the army, and other 
patriotic friends of the Union in its trials. He believed that 
the debt should be paid in full, but on the " great and fun- 
damental principles of justice." He believed that in "great 
and unusual questions of public morality," the heart should 
be appealed to as well as the head. He accordingly opposed 
Hamilton's plans and advocated a resolution to divide the 
payment equitably,, allotting to the purchaser the highest 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 47 

rate of public securities in the market, and paying the 
residue to the original holder. But his proposition was, 
after debate, rejected, 13 yeas and 36 nays, and Hamilton's 
plan adopted. All accounts agree that the effect of its 
adoption was to enrich suddenly a class who deserved 
little of their country, but who became at once zealous 
friends of a strong government, and earnest supporters of 
Hamilton's party. Mr. Benton's comment is, " The motion 
of Mr. Madison was lost, and with it the largest door was 
opened to the pillage of the original creditors, the plunder 
of the public treasury, and the corruption of Congress 
which the history of any government has ever seen." 

Next in order came the proposition for assumption of 
the debts of the States. 

This gave rise to a long and bitter struggle in Con- 
gress. None denied that the debts incurred by the 
States in the common cause should be a common charge. 
But some of the States had received advances out of 
the general treasury, others still owed balances on their 
several quotas of the requisitions. These should be de- 
ducted and the true state of the accounts ascertained 
before there was any assumption. But Hamilton's plan 
was to assume the gross amount of the debts of the 
several States without any adjustment of accounts. Here 
again he was looking to the consolidation of the gen- 
eral government as much as to meeting the demands 
of justice. As expressed by himself two years later, 
"the leading objects of the assumption of the State 
debts, as recommended by him, were an accession of 
strength to the general government, and an assurance of 



48 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

order and vigor in the national finances, by doing away 
with the necessity of thirteen complicated and conflict- 
ing systems of [State] finances." Mr. Madison led the 
opposition to assumption chiefly for the reasons above 
stated, that justice to States which had paid part of 
their debts required that the true state of balances be- 
tween the Union and the several States be first as- 
certained. 

The question long hung undetermined, kindling as much 
feeling and asperity in Congress as any subject that has 
ever been before it. After having been defeated, it was 
made the basis of a trade by which the federal capital 
was located at Washington in exchange for votes by 
which assumption was carried. 

"The leading and vital principle of the assumption 
was by an enlargement of the national debt to extend 
the influence of the national government; to subsidize 
a powerful moneyed interest to its support; to establish, 
through that interest, a control over the legislative de- 
partment, and by degrees to impart a tone and energy 
to the Federal Constitution far beyond the views of its 
framers, or the expectations and consent of the people 
by whom it was accepted." * 

Mr. Gallatin showed years afterwards that on a just 
settlement the sum really due the States was nearly 
eleven millions of dollars less than the amount ac- 
tually assumed. 

Mr. Hamilton had thus carried through all the rec- 

*3 " Rives' Madison," 1x7. 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION.' *g 

ommendations of his first report. In so doing he had 
bound the "money power" to the new government by 
ties of strongest interest. He had done more: he was 
now the head of a powerful political party, many of 
whom had been made rich by his legislation. 

Next in order came the bill for creating a National 
Bank. This raised a new question, viz. : Whether the 
United States had the constitutional power to establish 
such an institution? The Federalist party affirmed, Madi- 
son and his followers denied the existence of any such 
power. He (Madison) argued that the federal govern- 
ment was one of limited and specified powers,. " not 
being a general grant out of which particular powers 
are excepted, but a grant of particular powers only, 
leaving the general mass in other hands, those of the 
States." This position he supported by the text of 
the Constitution and by contemporary exposition; and 
declared that the passage of the bill would show that 
the adoption of the Constitution was brought about by 
one set of arguments and that it was to be adminis- 
tered under the influence of another. The supporters of 
the bill had recourse to the " general welfare clause " 
of the Constitution and the doctrine of " implied powers." 
Here were brought into collision the doctrines of strict 
construction and loose construction of the Constitution, of 
which we shall presently speak more fully, but before doing 
so we must go back to the history of the great states- 
man who is usually and justly considered the founder 
of the political party adhering to the former doctrine. 

Thomas Jefferson was born in Virginia, April 13, 1743, 



g THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

educated at William and Mary College, and practiced law 
successfully from 1767 to 1774. 

He ardently enlisted in the cause of American In- 
dependence, and became a leader in all the movements 
in Virginia looking to that result, and in June, 1775, 
took his seat as a deputy in the Continental Congress. 
His reputation was that of a vigorous writer rather than 
a ready debater, and his was the immortal pen that 
wrote the Declaration of Independence. Returning to the 
Virginia House of Burgesses in October, 1776, he at 
once set himself to the task of purging the laws of 
that commonwealth of all taint of caste or privilege. He 
carried through laws abolishing entails and primogeni- 
ture, and introduced the measure which subsequently be- 
came the statute of Religious Freedom, by which the 
Established Church was overthrown. 

After serving as governor he became again a member of 
Congress, and tendered to that body the deed of Virginia 
ceding the Northwest Territory. He prepared the famous 
Ordinance for the government of that Territory. 

In 1784 he was made minister to France, and from that 
distant land watched with intense interest the movement 
for framing the Constitution. While he declared that the 
government "wanted bracing," he was so impatient with 
those who would flee from its weaknesses to kingly gov- 
ernment, that he said : 

"Advise such to read the fable of the frogs, who so- 
licited Jupiter for a king. If that does not put them to 
rights, send them to Europe to see the trappings of mon- 
archy, and I will undertake that every man will go back 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. c r 

thoroughly cured. If all the evils which can arise among 
us from the republican form of our government from this 
day to the day of judgment could be put into a scale 
against what this country (France) suffers from its mo- 
narchical form in a week, or England in a month, the latter 
would preponderate." 

As already stated, his first concern on receiving a copy 
of the Constitution was for a Bill of Rights, "which the 
people were entitled to against every government on earth, 
general and particular, and that no just government should 
refuse, or rest on inference." Not finding such a bill, 
"providing clearly and without sophism for freedom of 
religion, freedom of the press, protection against standing 
armies, restriction of monopolies, the eternal and unre- 
mitting force of the habeas corpus laws and trial by jury, 
or any barrier to the perpetual re-eligibility of the Presi- 
dent," he expressed disappointment with the work of the 
Convention. With the general structure of the Consti- 
tution he was the better satisfied as he examined it the 
more maturely, and heartily subscribed to the course 
adopted by Massachusetts, to ratify with proposed amend- 
ments. Residing in France for five years, he saw the up- 
rising against monarchy, the destruction of the Bastile 
and the general turbulence of the earlier stages of the 
French Revolution. 

He was deeply interested in the revolt against the royal 
despotism, attended the debates of the National Assembly 
at Versailles, and was freely consulted by Lafayette and 
other French leaders. Obtaining leave of absence tern 



r 2 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

porarily, as he supposed, he sailed for home, reaching 
Monticello December 23, 1789. 

He accepted with some reluctance the office of Secre- 
tary of State to which he had already been appointed, 
and reached New York to enter upon its discharge March 
21, 1790. Although the inheritor of wealth and of an 
aristocratic lineage, Jefferson was a born democrat, a 
thorough believer in the right and the capacity of the 
people to govern themselves, a radical and uncompro- 
mising foe to every form of monarchy, aristocracy, caste 
or privilege. He had set forth in the Declaration of In- 
dependence the great doctrine to which his whole life was 
dedicated, and around which all his ideas of government 
ever revolved. 

That doctrine was that governments derive their just 
powers from the consent of the governed ; that they are 
established to secure to men those inalienable rights with 
which they are endowed by their Creator, and that this 
purpose must mark the limit and authority of their con- 
trol and action. 

Believing this doctrine as strongly as man can believe 
anything, it is not surprising that Jefferson was quick to 
take alarm at the policy and recommendations of his col- 
leagues in the Cabinet, or that he should promptly put 
himself at the head of those who opposed the steady 
consolidation of the power of the federal government, 
the shaping of that government more and more after the 
ideas of the English system, and the rapid building up of 
a wealthy class, at the expense of the landed and laboring 
interests of the country. To this leadership all his past 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. C3 

career fitted and compelled him; his high position in the 
administration and his great influence among the people. 
When he reached New York the foreign and domestic 
debt questions had been settled, and the House of Rep- 
resentatives was in the midst of its long and bitter 
wrangle over the assumption of the State debts. He took 
no part in this controversy, being busied with the organi- 
zation of his own department — that of State — and at first 
not feeling inclined to intermeddle with the plans of his 
associates in the Cabinet as to their own departments. 
Indeed he even aided Hamilton in securing the compro- 
mise by which assumption became a law through the 
agreement of its supporters to locate the federal capital 
on the Potomac; an act which he bitterly repented after- 
wards and claimed that he had been duped into it by his 
confidence in Hamilton, and by the latter's representations 
as to the peril of the Union, before he had time to be- 
come fully acquainted with all the circumstances surround- 
ing it. But it was not long after his arrival in New York 
that his democratic principles and instincts, none the less 
awake from his recent residence in France and his contact 
with the popular movement there, were alarmed at the 
general tone of conversation in that city and at the un- 
doubted direction of Hamilton's successive measures. The 
society into which his high position threw him he declared 
to be thoroughly tainted with monarchical ideas; the meas- 
ures of the Secretary of the Treasury he discovered were 
all tending in the same direction. He was not long in 
becoming fully possessed of the belief that Hamilton was 
at heart a monarchist and that a strong party was rally- 



tA THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ing about him, constantly growing in wealth and power 
through his financial measures, that was bent upon wrest- 
ing the government from its republican foundations and 
placing it upon a monarchical basis. 

That he judged Hamilton unjustly he could not to his 
dying hour be convinced; and while impartial history will 
not go to the extent of finding Hamilton guilty of any 
design to turn the United States into a monarchy, it will 
also acquit Jefferson of any insincerity in his belief, and 
fully admit that he saw much in his surroundings, and in 
the conduct and expressions of the Hamilton party, to 
make him doubt their fidelity to free institutions, and that 
the entire financial policy of the secretary, as it became 
unfolded, tended to give undue strength to the federal 
government at the expense of the States, and undue profit 
and power to the moneyed class at the expense of the 
people. Seeing all this, it was a matter of course that a 
man who had done so much to organize the people of the 
colonies against the tyranny of England should as promptly 
enter upon the work of organizing a party to oppose the 
march of centralization, the dangerous strengthening of 
the government, and the momentum Hamilton's measures 
were fast giving to it. The majority of the people un- 
doubtedly were in sympathy with Jefferson. To organize 
the scattered materials into a great political party was, 
however, a task of great difficulty. Those who sustained 
Hamilton's policies and accepted his ideas were prompt 
to appropriate to themselves the name of Federalists, a 
name little descriptive of their principles and policies, but 
carrying with it the prestige that belonged to the friends 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. ^ 

and champions of the new Constitution. In like spirit 
they attempted to fasten upon their opponents the name 
of anti-Federalists, so as to continue to them, as far as 
they could, the discredit of opposition to the new gov- 
ernment; but this name was indignantly repudiated by 
those who felt themselves in an especial manner called to 
assume the championship of the Constitution and to pre- 
serve it from being warped into a kingly government. 
They claimed to be known as Republicans, and that 
designation soon became their accepted name. 

The close of the contest over the National Bank, whose 
establishment had met with Jefferson's active and unre- 
lenting opposition, found these parties fast crystallizing 
into rival armies. As the question involved in establishing 
the bank had been chiefly one of constitutional power, it 
presented the first fair battle-field for those who believed 
in a loose, and those who contended for a strict, con- 
struction of the Constitution. 

But we must look beyond the antagonisms of parties 
as to the rightful interpretation of a written constitution 
for the real principle of division. It lies much deeper. 
Jefferson has said: "Men by their constitutions are nat- 
urally divided into two parties: those who fear and dis- 
trust the people, and wish to draw all power from them 
into the hands of the higher classes ; those who identify 
themselves with the people, have confidence in them, 
cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, 
although not the most wise depository of the public in- 
terests. In every country these two parties exist. In 



56 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

every one where they are free to speak and write they 
will declare themselves." 

Bancroft has used similar language: "The one held to 
what was established, and made changes only from neces- 
sity, the other welcomed reform, and went out to meet 
it; the one anchored on men of property, the other on 
the mass of the people; the one loving liberty was ever 
anxious for order, the other firmly attached to order, 
which it never doubted its power to maintain, was mainly 
anxious for freedom." 

The two parties had now declared • themselves : The 
one anchored on property, the other on the people. The 
one distrusted the people, and wished to .draw power from 
them into the hands of the higher classes; the other con- 
fided in the people, and sought to keep all power in 
their control. Of the one Hamilton was the leader, of the 
other Jefferson was the leader. Behind the former were 
to be found the friends of strong government ; behind 
the latter the friends of popular government. 

Before the close of the first Congress Hamilton's bill 
for an excise on ardent spirits had also become a law. 
Madison did not oppose it because it was necessary to 
meet the additional debt incurred by assumption. He was 
in general, he said, principled against excises, but of all 
excises, that on ardent spirits he considered the least 
objectionable. 

The elections had somewhat weakened the Federalist 
majority in the second Congress, which met October 24, 
1 79 1. Aaron Burr succeeded Hamilton's father-in-law, 
General Schuyler, as a Senator from New York. Two 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. *j 

great names in the Republican party now appeared on the 
roll of the House — James Monroe, of Virginia, and Na- 
thaniel Macon, of North Carolina. 

The dissensions between the two Cabinet party leaders 
became more clearly defined and irreconcilable as they 
better understood each other, and soon resulted in bitter 
personal hostility. 

The opponents of Hamilton were as yet without a party 
organ, while the Federalists, and especially Hamilton's 
measures, had an active defender in the paper known as 
Fenno's Gazette. Frenau, a college-mate of Madison, hold- 
ing the place of translating clerk in the State Department, 
established an opposition paper — the National Gazette — 
which became a sturdy and unrelenting opponent of 
Treasury measures. Stung by the opposition of Frenau, 
Hamilton so far forgot his position as to publish a series 
of anonymous articles in Fenno's Gazette, attacking Jeffer- 
son personally in language and charges that were bitter 
and vindictive. Washington viewed with growing annoy- 
ance this partisan feud in his Cabinet, and finally ad- 
dressed letters to both secretaries, urging " that instead 
of wounding suspicions and irritating charges there may 
be liberal allowances, mutual forbearances, and temporizing 
yielding on all sides." Each replied. Jefferson's letter 
is especially noteworthy as giving perhaps the fullest state- 
ment of the objections of the opposition to Hamilton's 
system. 

" His system," said Jefferson, " flowed from principles 
adverse to liberty and was calculated to undermine and 



58 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



demolish the republic by creating an influence of his 
department over the members of the legislature." 

The great outlines of his projects, he said, had been 
carried through by members personally interested and 
eventually to be enriched by them. 

"If what was actually done begot uneasiness in those 
who wished for virtuous government, what was further 
proposed was not less threatening to the friends of the 
Constitution. From a report on the subject of manufac- 
tures (still to be acted upon) it was expressly assumed that 
the general government has a right to exercise all powers 
which may be for the general welfare ; that is to say, all 
the legitimate powers of government; since no government 
has a legitimate right to do what is not for the welfare of 
the governed. There was indeed a sham limitation of the 
universality of* this power to cases where money is to be 
employed. But about what is it that money cannot be em- 
ployed? Thus the object of these plans taken together is 
to draw all the powers of government into the hands of the 
general legislature, to establish means for corrupting a suffi- 
cient corps in that legislature to divide the honest votes and 
preponderate by their own the scale which suited, and to 
have the corps under the command of the Secretary of the 
Treasury for the purpose of subverting, step by step, the 
principles. of the Constitution, which he has so often declared 
to be a thing of nothing, which must be changed." 

Jefferson further expressed his wish to retire from office 
at the end of the President's term. It may be observed here, 
that Hamilton had accused Jefferson, in his newspaper 
attacks, of remaining in the Cabinet while opposing the 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



59 



Administration, thus assuming that the President was entirely 
in accord with himself; and Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge, in his 
biography of Hamilton, does not hesitate to say that Jefferson 
undertook to "overthrow the party of Washington and 
Hamilton." That Washington did not consider Jefferson's 
antagonism to Hamilton as reaching to himself is shown by 
his earnest and repeated entreaties to Jefferson to remain in 
office, and especially by his avowal that he thought it " im- 
portant to preserve the check of his opinions in the adminis- 
tration in order to keep things in their proper channel and 
prevent them from going too far." 

By this time parties may be said to have gotten fairly into 
alignment, and Jefferson, in his letter of May 13, 1792, to 
Washington, had designated the "Republican party" as that 
which sought to preserve the government in its present form. 
This name, thus authoritatively given to it, remained for some 
years its official designation; and, as already stated, while 
gradually consolidated through opposition to Hamilton's 
funding system, National Bank, national excise, protective 
tariff, and general effort to cripple the States by strength- 
ening the Federal government, to his legislation in the 
interest of creditor classes, and his steady efforts to form an 
alliance between government and property, its great founders 
sought to build it on the fundamental principle out of which 
opposition to these measures naturally grew — of strict con- 
struction of the Constitution and, indeed, strict construction 
%f the power and authority of all government. " I would 
rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much 
liberty than those attending too small a degree of it," was 
Jefferson's creed from beginning to end. 



5 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

As this article contemplates nothing more than an out- 
line sketch of the party thus founded by Jefferson, with the 
constant and faithful co-operation of Madison, it will not 
henceforward go so much into detail as to matters of his- 
tory, although it is scarcely possible to present the history 
of the party without attempting to write that of the 
country also. 

Great sympathy was felt with the French Revolution in 
its earlier movements by all parties in the United States, 
not only because of friendly feeling toward France for her 
help in our struggle for independence but because that 
struggle seemed to be the spark that kindled the great up- 
rising of the people against despotism and royalty. As the 
Revolution became marked by more violence, and more 
radical democratic ideas, the Federalists withdrew their 
sympathy and the Republicans increased in theirs. For a 
long time there seemed, thus, to be almost a French party 
and a anti-French, or British, party, and undoubtedly this 
gave, alternately, strength or weakness to each, but it could 
not be the basis of enduring party divisions. 

As the close of Washington's first term drew near both 
Federalists and Republicans urgently pleaded with him to 
stand for re-election. Both parties, or, in other words, the 
people, had confidence in him. Each distrusted and feared 
the other. Washington, who had determined to retire 
after a single term, and had requested Madison to prepare 
a formal farewell address for him, from headings supplied 
by himself, reluctantly consented to accept a second term. 
No nominations of any kind were made, but, as parties were 
now clearly formed and party spirit ran high, it was inevi- 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 6 r 

table that the Republicans should endeavor to defeat John 
Adams for re-election to the Vice-Presidency. Jefferson 
would be ineligible under the Constitution, being a citizen 
of the same State as Washington, and by general under- 
standing, wdthout convention or caucus, George Clinton 
received the Republican vote. 

Vermont and Kentucky had been admitted into the 
Union; hence there were fifteen States to take part in the 
election. 

Nine States — to wit, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia 
and Kentucky — chose -their electors by their legislatures. 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland 
and Virginia by vote of the people. North Carolina was 
compelled, by the shortness of the time between the meet- 
ting of the legislature and that of the electoral college, to 
adopt a temporary measure, whereby, for that election, the 
members of the legislature by four grand divisions of the 
State chose electors. Washington received the vote of 
all the States, 132. Adams received the votes of New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania (except one), Delaware, 
Maryland, South Carolina (one given to Burr), in all jy. 
Clinton received the votes of New York, Virginia, North 
Carolina, Georgia, and one from Pennsylvania, 50 in all. 
Kentucky gave her four votes to Jefferson. 

Towards the close of Washington's first term the op- 
position to the excise on distilled spirits caused much 
excitement among the mountaineers of North Carolina and 
Western Pennsylvania, almost leading to open revolt in 



5 2 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the latter region. As Hamilton had wished to punish the 
members of the Legislature of Virginia through the power 
of the Federal courts when they censured, by resolution, 
the assumption of State debts, he was now desirous of 
punishing the Pennsylvanians for certain resolutions adopted 
by a convention at Pittsburg. 

But Washington held to more pacific measures, in which 
he was sustained by the residue of his cabinet. 

Hamilton also failed to carry through the financial meas- 
ures he recommended to the House, but successfully met 
resolutions of censure upon his administration of the Treas- 
ury Department, offered by Giles of Virginia and voted 
for by Madison and Macon. Soon after Washington's 
second inauguration, news came that France had declared 
war on Great Britain. A very strong feeling at once 
arose in this country in favor of allying ourselves to 
France; not only from gratitude for her help to us but, as 
some contended, from treaty obligations. Washington, 
however, on the unanimous advice of his cabinet, in which 
Jefferson still remained by his earnest entreaty, issued a 
proclamation of strict neutrality. 

But when Genet, the French minister, came, in almost 
triumphal procession, to Philadelphia, so strong a feeling 
was kindled against this proclamation, and so feverish a 
desire to join in alliance with the French republic, that it 
is said ten thousand people in the streets of that city 
threatened, day after day, to drag Washington out of his 
house and make him resign or declare for France. 

But the folly and insolence of Genet, who finally threat- 
ened to appeal from the government to the people, alien- 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



63 



ated popular • sympathy and his recall was demanded by the 
United States. 

When the Third Congress met, in December, 1793, the 
Republicans were in the majority, and elected Muhlenberg 
Speaker of the House, by a majority of ten votes. 

Albert Gallatin appeared as a Republican senator from 
Pennsylvania, but was unseated by the Federalists on the 
pretext that he was not yet a citizen of nine years' resi- 
dence in the United States, but really because the Federal- 
ist control of the Senate was at stake. The growth of 
Republican influence manifested itself there in the passage 
of a resolution for open sessions of the Senate in the 
future. 

Jefferson retired from the Cabinet on December 31, 1793, 
having offered his resignation in July and continued until 
the close of the year at Washington's earnest and repeated 
solicitations. He carried into private life as much popu- 
larity as a party leader could enjoy; for the publication of 
his official correspondence disclosed that in all our troubles 
with Great Britain and France, he had not been swayed 
by his hostility to the one or his partiality for the other, 
but vindicated, in respect to both, all the rights of our 
nation in diplomatic papers of the highest statesmanship 
and in language far elevated above prejudice or favor. 

Meanwhile a decision of the Supreme Court caused the 
Republicans to adopt what became, by ratification, the 
Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution, which declares 
that the judicial power of the United States shall not 
extend to any suit in law or equity against a State by 



64 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

citizens of another State or by citizens or subjects of any 
foreign State. 

In July, 1794, the Whiskey Insurrection, led by the anti- 
excise men of Western Pennsylvania, broke out and for a 
time threatened so serious resistance to the laws that the 
President sent an armed expedition, under Governor Henry 
Lee, of Virginia, to that region, upon whose approach the 
insurgents submitted and the disturbances subsided with- 
out the punishment of those who had fomented them. 
Washington, in reporting this outbreak to Congress, con- 
demned the " Democratic Societies " organized through 
Genet's influence in imitation of the political societies of 
France, which he charged with favoring the resistance to 
the excise. As a result the societies dissolved, although 
many of them were officered by men of prominence. 

Hamilton retired from the Cabinet in January, 1795, 
and was succeeded by his subordinate, Oliver Wolcott, of 
Connecticut, the comptroller. He did not, however, retire 
from the active leadership of his party, which for the short 
remainder of his life he held undisputed by any rival. 

Jefferson likewise could not escape, at Monticello, the 
responsibility of being the inspirer and counsellor of the 
Republicans. He viewed with much disapproval the great 
show of military force against the Whiskey Insurrection, 
whose resistance to the excise law he could hardly find it 
in his heart to condemn; going so far as to say, in a 
letter to Madison, " The excise law is an infernal one." 
He also viewed the President's censure of the Democratic 
Societies as an attack on " Freedom of Speech," expressly 
disclaiming, however, sympathy with those whose " misbe- 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 65 

havior had been taken advantage of to slander the friends 
of popular rights." 

The next most important event in Washington's ad- 
ministration was the negotiation of a treaty with Eng- 
land by John Jay. The provisions of the treaty, when 
made known, were exceedingly unpopular, as they did 
not secure American commerce from interruptions, Amer- 
ican seamen from impressment, or re-open trade with 
the West Indies. The first explosion of popular dis- 
approval was very strong, and but for the intemperate 
attack made by extremists on Washington himself, the 
political effect on the Federalists, who generally sustained 
the treaty, would have been damaging. After a long 
and acrimonious debate in the House, the appropriation 
needed for carrying out the treaty was voted by a ma- 
jority of three. 

The Fourth Congress had been slightly Federalist in 
the Senate, with an unreliable Republican majority in 
the House. 

As his second term drew toward a close, much effort 
was made to get Washington to accept re-election, but 
he was inflexible, and in September, 1796, gave out his. 
farewell address. With his retirement the field opened 
for the first trial of strength between the two political 
parties. He had kept aloof from both and honestly 
endeavored to rise an impartial judge over their con- 
tests, the bitterness of which he always sought to mod- 
erate. 

No formal nominations were made. Thomas Jefferson 
was, by universal consent, accepted as the Republican 



66 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

candidate, with Aaron Burr for Vice-President. John 
Adams, by like consent, as the Federalist candidate, 
with Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, for Vice- 
President. Tennessee was now a member of the Union, 
so that sixteen States took part in the election. Ten- 
nessee was added to the nine States which, at the last 
election, chose electors by their legislatures. North 
Carolina was added to the five that chose by popular 
vote. John Adams received 71 votes, as follows: New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, 7 from Mary- 
land, with one each from Virginia, Pennsylvania, and 
North Carolina. Jefferson received the remaining votes 
of the three last-named States and the full vote of 
South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with 
four from Maryland. It will thus appear that the three 
votes that were given to Adams from Virginia, Penn- 
sylvania and North Carolina elected him. 

Pinckney received 59 votes, Burr 30, Samuel Adams 
15, Oliver Ellsworth 11, and seven other persons scat- 
tering votes, including George Washington, 2. 

John Adams thus became President, and Thomas Jef- 
ferson Vice-President of the United States for four years 
from March 4, 1797. 



CHAPTER III. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
JOHN ADAMS, 1797-1801. 



ADAMS' inaugural address was highly patriotic, catholic 
and conciliatory. Indeed, he seems to have entered 
on his administration with the idea of bringing some of 
the leaders of the Republican party into its service; but 
his Cabinet, which was continued from Washington, and 
composed of minor characters, soon induced him to dis- 
card the thought. The Senate was strongly Federalist; 
the House was Republican. 

But two events deserve special prominence in the politi- 
cal history of his administration, the first of which turned 
the tide very strongly towards the Federalists, the other 
caused its rapid ebb, and in the end left them hopelessly 
stranded forever. * 

The unfriendly relations with France, aggravated by 
the refusal of the Directory to receive Charles C. Pinck- 
ney, the envoy sent out toward the close of Washington's 
administration to replace Monroe, the spoliations upon our 
marine, and other hostile acts, raised quite a general feel- 
ing of indignation against that country. 

Adams sent another mission, consisting of Pinckney, 
John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry, with authority to ad- 

(67) 



58 THE" NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

just differences and, if possible, restore harmonious rela- 
tions between the two republics. 

The insulting treatment of these envoys; the proposi- 
tion made by Talleyrand, through his confidential agents, 
for a public loan and a private bribe, when reported to 
our government and communicated by the President to 
Congress, aroused a sincere and just feeling of indignation 
throughout the country and led at once to prompt meas- 
ures for defensive war ; such as the establishment of a 
Navy Department; the ordering of a provisional army, of 
which Washington was commissioned lieutenant-general; 
the suspension of commercial intercourse with France, and 
orders to our men-of-war to seize any French vessels 
preying upon our commerce. 

This feeling tended to depress the Republicans, who had 
always been boastful of their friendship to France, and 
also to rally to the administration menaced by a foreign 
war the general support of the people. 

The Federalists lost all discretion in the intoxication of 
power and used that power for the passage of three meas- 
ures, two of which were directed at foreign-born residents 
of the United States and one at political opponents. 

They made naturalization more difficult and prolonged 
the term of residence in the United States preliminary to 
citizenship from five to fifteen years ; required all white 
aliens arriving, or residing, in the country to report for 
registration. 

Following the above came the "Act Concerning Aliens," 
approved June 25, 1798. This act authorized the Presi- 
dent to order all such aliens as he shall judge dangerous 



JOHN ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. £q 

to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have 
reasonable grounds to suspect are concerned in any treason- 
able or secret machinations against the government thereof, 
to depart out of the territory of the United States within 
such time as shall be expressed in such order. The 
penalty for disobedience to the order, or for not obtaining 
a license to reside in the United States, or not con- 
forming to the license if obtained, was imprisonment for 
not more than three years and perpetual disability to 
become a citizen of the United States. 

The President was authorized to grant licenses to re- 
main within the United States for such time, and at such 
place, as he might direct, and to remove any alien im- 
prisoned under the act. Every master of a vessel was re- 
quired to report the names, and other particulars, as to 
every alien arriving on board his vessels. The act was to 
be in force two years. 

In immediate succession, July 14, 1798, came another 
law, which made it a high misdemeanor, punishable by a 
fine of $5,000 and five years' imprisonment, for any per- 
sons to unlawfully combine, or conspire together, with in- 
tent to oppose any measure, or impede the operation of 
any law, of the United States, or to intimidate any officer 
in the performance of his duty, or to counsel, or attempt 
to procure, any insurrection, riot, or unlawful assembly, 
with the intent aforesaid. The second section of this act 
provided that if any person should write, print, utter or 
publish, or procure the same to be done, or knowingly 
and willingly assist in writing, printing, uttering or pub- 
lishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing against 



y Q THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the government, either House of Congress, or the Presi- 
dent, with intent to defame or bring them, or either of 
them, into contempt or disrepute ; or to excite against 
them the hatred of the . people, or to stir up sedition, or 
excite any unlawful combinations for opposing or resisting 
any law or any act of the President done in pursuance 
of any such law, or of the power vested in him by the 
Constitution ; or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law 
or act, or to aid, encourage, or abet any hostile designs 
of any foreign nation against the United States, their peo- 
ple or government, such person, on conviction, should be 
punished by a fine not exceeding $2,000 and by imprison- 
ment not exceeding two years. 

Another section allowed a defendant prosecuted for writ- 
ing or publishing any libel to give in evidence, in his de- 
fence, the truth of the matter contained in the publication 
charged as a libel. 

This act was to expire March 3, 1801, with the close of 
Adams' administration. These two laws made up the 
noted "Alien and Sedition" Acts by which, in the height 
of its power, the Federal party committed suicide, while it 
aimed to establish that power. 

They were the deliberate acts of the leaders of that 
party; indeed, as passed by the Senate, were much more 
severe and brutal. 

These laws were directed at the opposition party and 
were intended to deprive of trial by jury, or right of asy- 
lum or citizenship, aliens, whether friends or enemies, 
largely because our naturalized citizens voted with the 
Republican party, and to punish, or destroy, that Press 



JOHN ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. j\ 

which criticised the measures of the Administration and 
abused Federal leaders. 

It seems almost incredible to us that men who had been 
promoters, or actors, in our great revolutionary struggles 
should have approved laws that were animated by the 
spirit of persecution and assailed the most sacred rights ; 
but it is certain that the entire Federalist party approved 
the Alien and Sedition Acts, and the severer form . in 
which they had been introduced, or passed, by the Senate, 
disclosed their willingness to go further in their assaults 
upon freedom. " Hamilton," says his biographer and 
ardent admirer, Mr. Lodge, " went as far in the direction 
of sustaining these laws as any one." "A year later, in 
1799, he wrote to Dayton, the Spencer of the National 
House of Representatives, a long letter, in which he set 
forth very clearly the policy which he felt ought to be 
pursued. He wished to give strength to the government 
and increase centralization by every means, by an exten- 
sion of the national judiciary, a liberal system of internal 
improvements, an increased and abundant revenue, an en- 
largement of the army and navy, permanence in the laws 
for the volunteer army, extension of the powers of the 
general government, subdivision of the States as soon as 
practicable, and finally a strong sedition law, and the power 
to banish aliens." 

Adams not only approved these laws officially but was 
constantly threatening to enforce them. He did authorize 
the expulsion of the French General Collot and a German 
named Schweitzer; but his Secretary of State, Timothy 
Pickering, who was extremely ardent for enforcing these 



72 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



laws, fearing that the arrest of these two aliens would 
alarm other game he was more anxious to bag, postponed 
the execution of the President's order until it was aban- , 
doned. Many prosecutions took place under the Sedition 
law and Federalist judges were found ready to enforce it to 
its fullest severity. 

The most conspicuous sufferer was Matthew Lyon, an 
Irish member of Congress from Vermont, whose zealous 
republicanism had made him particularly obnoxious to the 
Federalists. He was fined $1,000 and sentenced to four 
months' imprisonment for expressions used in a published 
letter and on the hustings which to-day might be heard 
without exciting remark on any platform in the United 
States. A specimen* of the more ridiculous cases brought 
under the law is given in "Hammond's Political History of 
New York," Vol. I., p. 131. "Mr. Baldwin, of New Jersey, 
was indicted, tried, convicted and fined, under color of the 
Sedition law, for the following offence. Mr. Adams, on his 
return from the seat of government, passed through New- 
ark ; some cannon were discharged in compliment to him 
while passing through that village ; Mr. Baldwin, who it 
would appear was a rather low-bred man, said he wished 
the wadding discharged from the cannon had been lodged 
in the President's backsides. For this he was fined $100." 
Many other cases might be cited, and even Jefferson was 
led to believe that his correspondence was watched in order 
to secure some material for starting a prosecution against 
him. 

Finding themselves overridden in Congress and without 
hope of relief in the Federal Courts, the leaders of the 



JOHN ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. j* 

Republican party decided to take their stand in the State 
Legislatures, and accordingly Jefferson drafted a set of reso- 
lutions which were adopted by the Legislature of Kentucky, 
and Madison, in turn, another set adopted by the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia, known in our history as the " Kentucky 
and Virginia Resolutions of 1798." 

The Kentucky resolutions declared that the States are not 
united on the principle of unlimited submission to their 
general government, but, by the compact of the Constitution, 
delegated certain definite power to the general government, 
reserving, each State to itself, the residuary right to their 
own self-government, and that whensoever the general gov- 
ernment assumes undelegated power, its acts are unauthori- 
tative and void. That to this compact each State was an 
integral party, its co-States being the other party; that the 
government created by this compact was not made the ex- 
clusive judge of its powers, but that each party had a right 
to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode of 
redress. 

Another section declared that the Constitution having 
delegated to Congress the power to punish certain speci- 
fied crimes, and none others, that from general princi- 
ples and the explicit reservations of the Tenth Amendment, 
the Sedition Act, the act to punish frauds committed on 
the Bank of the United States, and all others which 
assume to create, define, or punish crimes other than 
those enumerated in the Constitution, were void, and the 
power to create, define and punish such crimes apper- 
tained solely to the respective States, each within its 
own territory. 



74 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

The third resolution declared the Sedition Act a viola- 
tion of the Constitutional prohibition against laws 
abridging the freedom of the press, and therefore void. 

Section four declared aliens friends under the jurisdic- 
tion and protection of the States wherein they were, and 
that the Alien Act, assuming power over them not 
delegated by the Constitution, was void. 

The fifth resolution declared that the removal of 
aliens when migrated was equivalent to the prohibition 
of the migration, which power was expressly denied to 
Congress prior to the year 1808. (Sec. 9 of Article I., 
Const.) 

The sixth resolution declared that to imprison a per- 
son on failure to obey the simple order of the Presi- 
dent to depart out of the United States was contrary 
to the amendment which provided that no person should 
be deprived of liberty without due process of law, and 
that the authority given the President in the alien law, 
to remove a person out of the United States on his 
own suspicion, was a violation of the amendment which 
guaranteed that in all criminal prosecutions the accused 
should enjoy the right to a public trial, by an im- 
partial jury, with all the safeguards thrown around such 
trial; that to transfer the power of judging from the 
courts to the President was forbidden by the clause in 
the Constitution which vested the judicial power of the 
United States in the courts. 

The seventh resolution declared that the construction 
given to the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
imposts and excises; to pay the debts and provide for 



JOHN ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. 



75 



the common defence and general welfare, and to make 
all laws necessary and proper to carry into execution 
the power vested in the general government, went to 
the destruction of all the limits prescribed to its power 
by the Constitution. 

The eighth resolution enjoined the Senators and Rep- 
resentatives in Congress to present these resolutions to 
their respective Houses, and to use their best endeavors 
to procure a repeal of the aforesaid unconstitutional and 
obnoxious laws. 

The ninth and last resolution directed the governor 
of that commonwealth to communicate the resolutions to 
the Legislatures of the several States with the assurance 
that " this commonwealth considers union for specified 
national purposes, and particularly for those specified in 
their late Federal compact, to be friendly to the future 
happiness and prosperity of all the States ; that faithful 
to that compact according to the plain intent and 
meaning in which it was understood and acceded to by 
the several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preser- 
vation; that it does also believe that to take from the 
States all the powers of self-government and transfer them 
to a general and consolidated government, without re- 
gard to the special delegations and reservations solemnly 
agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness 
or prosperity of these States : and therefore this common- 
wealth is determined, as it doubts not its co-States are, 
tamely to submit to undelegated and consequently un- 
limited powers in no man or body of men on earth.' 
It then proceeds to enumerate somewhat at large the 



76 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

conclusions which would flow from the acts specified if 
they should stand. 

The Virginia resolutions were in like spirit but in more 
restrained language. After avowing warm attachment to 
the Union of the States and a firm determination to sup- 
port the Constitutions of the United States and of the State 
against every aggression, either foreign or domestic, they 
declare that the powers of the federal government result 
from the compact to which the States are parties; that in 
case of a deliberate, palpable and dangerous exercise of 
other powers, not granted by said compact, they have the 
right, and are in duty bound, to interpose for arresting the 
progress of the evil and for maintaining within their re- 
spective limits the authorities, rights and liberties appertain- 
ing to them. 

They express deep regret that a spirit has, in sundry 
instances, been manifested by the federal government to 
enlarge its powers by forced constructions of the Constitu- 
tion, and that indications have appeared of a " design to 
expand certain general phrases so as to destroy the mean- 
ing and effect of the particular enumeration, which neces- 
sarily explains and limits the general phrases." 

They further protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts 
as exercising power nowhere delegated to the federal gov- 
ernment; the latter act exercising a power which t more 
than any other, ought to produce universal alarm because 
it is " levelled against that right of freely examining public 
characters and measures, and of free communication among 
the people thereon, which has ever been justly deemed 
the only effectual guardian of every other right." 



JOHN ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. jj 

These resolutions, while generally disapproved by the 
Legislatures of the other States, served to arrest and con- 
solidate public sentiment against the Alien and Sedition 
laws. 

Meanwhile, as President Adams had determined to send 
new envoys to France, through whose efforts the threatened 
war was averted and the public had more time to see and 
fear the dangerous attacks on liberty made in these acts, a 
consequent reaction against the Federalists set in, aided by 
the fact that the party was divided into two factions, of 
which Adams and Hamilton were the respective leaders. 
Not only the Senate, but the Cabinet of Mr. Adams was 
also under the controlling influence of Hamilton, and 
although the Sixth Congress, chosen in 1798, after the 
passage of the Alien and Sedition laws, was strongly Fed- 
eralist, the tide having not yet set in against them, the 
progress of the session disclosed their waning strength. 
The opposing candidates, as it appears, were put into the 
field by Congressional caucuses. With Adams the Fed- 
eralists associated Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South 
Carolina; with Jefferson the Republicans joined Aaron 
Burr, of New York. 

The New York Legislature elected in the spring of 1800 
was Republican. As it could not meet before July, Ham- 
ilton proposed to Governor Jay to convene the old Legisla- 
ture, whose term had still some time to run, in extra ses- 
sion and prevail on it to pass a bill authorizing the people 
to choose electors by districts. 

On this proposal, which will always be a reflection on 
Hamilton's memory, Jay endorsed the words : " Proposing 



7* 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



a measure for party purposes which I think it would not 
become me to adopt." 

It added to the discomfiture of the Federalists in the 
campaign that their own party became rent by factions and 
that Adams finally felt called upon to force out of his 
cabinet Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State, and James 
McHenry, his Secretary of War. Hamilton set himself to 
work to bring in Pinckney ahead of Adams, in which he 
was aided by Adams' own Secretary of the Treasury, Oliver 
Wolcott. Adams relied upon the moderate Federalists and 
denounced the ultras among his Massachusetts neighbors 
who were plotting against him, as an " Essex Junto," a 
name which has remained in history. The campaign was 
an exceedingly bitter one and the Federalists' abuse of 
Jefferson has not been surpassed by the mendacity and 
virulence of any succeeding campaign. No new States had 
been admitted in Adams' administration and there were 
sixteen States to take part in the election, six of which 
had popular elections. The result of the election gave 
Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr each 73 votes, John 
Adams 65, Pinckney 64, and John Jay 1. 

There being a tie between Jefferson and Burr, an intrigue 
was immediately set on foot among the Federalists to vote 
for Burr and prevent the election of Jefferson, to which 
Burr lent, if not an active co-operation, a willing acquies- 
cence. The election devolved upon the House, voting by; 
States, and the balloting began on February 11, 1801. It 
is to the credit of Hamilton that, as heartily as he hated 
Jefferson, he still more strongly distrusted Burr and threw 
his influence against the proposal to elect him by Federalist 



JOHN ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. jg 

votes. The House resolved to continue in session, with- 
out proceeding to other business, until a President should 
be chosen. 

Eight States voted for Jefferson on the first ballot, to 
wit : New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North 
Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee. Six States 
voted for Burr, to wit: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware and South Carolina. 
Vermont and Maryland, being equally divided, voted blank. 
Every succeeding ballot disclosed the same result until finally, 
on the thirty-sixth ballot, taken on the 17th of February, 
Mr. Jefferson received the votes of ten States and Mr. Burr 
of four States. The Federalist member from Vermont 
declining to vote, Matthew Lyon, the Irishman who had 
been persecuted under the Sedition law, cast the vote of 
that State for Jefferson. The four Federalists from Mary- 
land who had tied the vote of that State also refrained 
from voting, and Maryland voted for Jefferson. Delaware 
and South Carolina cast blank votes. Thus Mr. Jefferson 
became President, with Aaron Burr as Vice-President. 



CHAPTER IV. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
JEFFERSON, 1 801-1809. 



THE lesson taught by the tie vote between Jefferson 
and Burr at the election in 1800 led to an amend- 
ment to the Constitution requiring that the electors, in 
future elections, should " name in their ballots the person 
voted for as President and, in distinct ballots, the person 
voted for as Vice-President." This is the Twelfth Amend- 
ment, which was declared adopted on September 25, 1804. 

The election of Jefferson was a political revolution ; so 
understood by the people of both parties, and intended by 
Jefferson himself, not only to reverse the centralizing and 
monarchical legislation of the past, but at once to do 
away with the ceremonials borrowed from foreign govern- 
ments, which were objectionable to his ideas of republican 
simplicity. He accordingly aimed to make his inauguration 
as simple as became the assumption of the chief magis- 
tracy by a private citizen of a free country. According to 
an English traveller, quoted in Randall's "Life of Jeffer- 
son," who speaks as an eye-witness of the occasion, " His 
dress was of plain cloth, and he rode on horseback to the 
Capitol, without a single guard or even a servant in his 

train, dismounted without assistance, and hitched the bridle 
(80) 




THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. S3 

of his horse to the palisades." We may remark that the 
seat of government was now at Washington. 

The inaugural address of Jefferson will always remain 
the best and clearest statement of the principles of demo- 
cratic government. It is in style a little rhetorical, full 
of the spirit of conciliation; full of the faith that the great 
mass of the people were true in their attachment to demo- 
cratic government, whatever had been their party divisions 
in the late election. After modest reference to himself and 
an appeal to his " fellow-citizens to restore the social inter- 
course, the harmony and affection temporarily interrupted 
by the political campaign, without which liberty and even 
life are dreary things," he went on to declare that every 
difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. 

" We have called by different names brethren of the 
same principles. We are all Republicans; we are all Fed- 
eralists. If there be any among us who wish to dissolve 
this Union, or to change its republican form, let them 
stand undisturbed as monuments to the safety with which 
error of opinion can be tolerated where reason is left free 
to combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear 
that a republican government cannot be strong; that this 
government is not strong enough. But would the honest 
patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon 
a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on 
the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the 
world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to pre- 
serve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, 
the strongest government on earth. I believe it the only 

one where every man, at the call of the laws, would fly 
6 ' 



8 4 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



to the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of 
the public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes 
it is said a man cannot be trusted with the government 
of himself. Can he be trusted with the government of 
others ? Or have we found angels in the form of kings 
to govern him ? Let history answer this question." 

After reciting our superior advantages by virtue of our 
free institutions, of the extent and greatness of our country, 
of the benign influences of religion, he asks : 

" With all these blessings what more is necessary to 
make us a happy and prosperous people? Still one thing 
more, fellow-citizens — a wise and frugal government, which 
shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall 
leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits 
of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the 
mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum 
of good government, and this is necessary to close the 
circle of our felicities." 

He proceeded to state what are deemed the essential 
principles of our government, and, consequently, those which 
ought to shape its administration. This statement, as we 
have said, is the best exposition ever made of the funda- 
mental doctrines of the party whose leader he was. Its 
language has passed into our political literature; its gen- 
eral principles, so admirably stated, are quoted to-day in 
all political discussions, and have become, as he himself 
wished and foresaw, "the creed of our political faith, the 
text of civil instruction, the touchstone by which to try 
the services of those we trust." 

" Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION g^ 

or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and 
honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances 
with none; the support of the State governments in their 
rights, as the most competent administrations for our do- 
mestic concerns, and the surest bulwarks against anti- 
republican tendencies ; the preservation of the general gov- 
ernment in its whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet- 
anchor of our peace at home and safety abroad ; a jealous 
care of the right of election by the people — a mild and 
safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword 
of revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided ; 
absolute acquiescence in decisions of the majority, the vital 
principle of republics, from which there is no appeal but 
to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of des- 
potism; a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace 
and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve 
them ; the supremacy of the civil over the military author- 
ity; economy in the public expense, that labor may be 
lightly burdened; the honest payment of our debts and 
sacred preservation of the public faith ; encouragement of 
agriculture, and commerce as its handmaid; the diffusion 
of information and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar 
of public reason ; freedom of religion ; freedom of the 
press; freedom of person under the protection of the 
habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected — 
these principles form the high constellation which has gone 
before us, and guided our footsteps through an age of 
revolution and reformation." 

The Cabinet of Jefferson consisted of James Madison, 
Secretary of • State ; Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts, 



85 THE, NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Secretary of War; Levi Lincoln, of the same State, 
Attorney-General; Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, Sec- 
retary of the Treasury; Robert Smith, of Maryland, Sec- 
retary of the Navy; and Gideon Granger, of Connecticut, 
Postmaster-General. 

One of the first questions with which Jefferson had to 
deal was that of appointment to and removal from office. 
The incumbents were Federalists, and generally bitter Fed- 
eralists. The story is often told how the new Attorney- 
General came upon John Marshall, Adams' Secretary of 
State, while the latter was yet busy signing the commis- 
sions of the Federalist judges and others, whose nomina- 
tions Adams had poured in upon the Senate in the closing 
hours of his administration. 

As this was the first change of administration from one 
party to another, the question of the President's policy in 
this particular confronted him on the threshold. In a let- 
ter, written a few days after his inauguration, to Dr. Rush, 
he uses this language: 

"With regard to appointments, I have so much confi- 
dence in the justice and good sense of the Federalists, that 
I have no doubt they will concur in the fairness of the 
position, that after they have been in the exclusive posses- 
sion of all offices from the very first origin of party among 
us to the 3d of March at nine o'clock in the night, no 
Republican ever admitted and this doctrine newly avowed, 
it is now perfectly just that the Republicans should come 
in for the vacancies which may fall in until something like 
an equilibrium in office be restored. But the great 
stumbling-block will be removals, which, though made 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. %y 

on those just principles only on which my predecessor 
ought to have removed the same persons, will nevertheless 
be ascribed to removal on party principles. 1st. I will 
expunge the effect of Mr. A.'s indecent conduct in crowd- 
ing nominations after he knew they were not for himself, 
until nine o'clock of the night at twelve o'clock of which 
he was to go out of office. So far as they are during 
pleasure I shall not consider the persons named even as 
candidates for the office, nor pay the respect of notifying 
them that I consider what was done as a nullity. 2d. 
Some removals must be made for misconduct." 

Among the proper causes for removal he mentioned the 
conduct of Federal marshals and attorneys who had been 
engaged in packing juries and prosecuting citizens with 
the bitterness of party hatred. These removals, he antici- 
pated, would not be over twenty in number out of the 
thousands of offices in the United States. While not satis- 
fying the clamorous demands of his own party he was 
particularly anxious to attract permanently to its standard 
the rank and file of the Federalist party, whom he believed 
to be really Republicans at heart, and to conciliate them 
by his moderation. In other words he was making a 
successful move to destroy the opposition.' The case of 
the New Haven collectorship is often cited as showing the 
manner in which he dealt with removals. Mr. Adams 
had appointed Elizur Goodrich, a Federal member of 
Congress, to that place after Jefferson's election ; and Good- 
rich had resigned his seat to accept what he supposed 
would be a permanent position, forestalling a Republican 
appointment. Jefferson treated his appointment as void and 



88 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

appointed Judge Bishop, of New Haven, collector. When 
remonstrated with by a committee of merchants of that 
city for this appointment, the President contrasted his 
toleration with that of his Federal predecessors. Lament- 
ing that the previous total exclusion of Republicans from 
office called for a prompter correction than the dying out 
or resignations of the incumbents, he said : 

" I shall correct the procedure, but, that done, return 
with joy to that state of things when the only question 
concerning a candidate shall be, is he honest, is he capa- 
ble, is he faithful to the Constitution?" Notwithstanding 
this extreme moderation of Jefferson, he was assailed, as 
President Cleveland has been assailed in our own day, by 
his political opponents as a monster of proscription. The 
more moderate Federalists, however, were pleased with the 
tone of Jefferson's inaugural, with the earlier steps of his 
administration, and were soon disabused of those fears with 
which their leaders had filled them as to the meaning of a 
democratic administration. 

The following sentence from a letter written by Jefferson 
to a kinsman on the subject of appointing relatives to office 
deserves to be recorded : 

"The public will never be made to believe that the 
appointment of a relative is made on the ground of merit 
alone, uninfluenced by family views; nor can they ever see 
with approbation offices, the disposal of which they intrust 
to their Presidents for public purposes, divided out as 
family property." 

One of the first acts of the President was the pardoning, 
or the release, of all who had been prosecuted under the 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. go 

Sedition law. He abolished the weekly levee at the 
* White House and all the mimicry of court etiquette, for 
which his predecessor had a weakness. 

The State elections in 1801 disclosed the complete over- 
throw of the Federal party. With the exception of three 
of the New England States — Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, and Connecticut — and of Delaware, the Republicans 
had gained control of all the States. The new government 
was becoming firmly lodged in the confidence of the peo- 
ple. The Congress which met in December, 1801, had a 
small Republican majority in both branches. Nathaniel 
Macon, of North Carolina, was chosen Speaker of the 
House. Jefferson sent a written message instead of deliv- 
ering the opening speech. In this message Jefferson rec- 
ommended reduction of expenditures and reduction of 
taxes; decrease of the army and of the navy; a revisal of 
the laws on the subject of naturalization ; an examination 
of the judiciary system, and other less important measures. 

Agriculture, manufactures, commerce, and navigation he 
declared to be the four pillars of our prosperity, most 
thriving when left most free to individual enterprise. Con- 
gress was animated by his spirit. It reduced taxes ; it 
reduced the army and the navy; restored the law making 
five (5) instead of fourteen (14) years' residence required of 
aliens preliminary to naturalization; admitted, against the 
unanimous vote of the Federalists, reporters for the press 
to seats upon the floor of both Houses ; repealed, after a 
hard party fight, and by one majority in the Senate, the 
Judiciary Act, whereby the twenty-four circuit courts had 
been established and filled, in the main, by Adams' mid- 



9 o 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



night appointment of Federal judges; curtailed the offices 
and retrenched salaries in all the civil departments. Thus 
had the first Democratic administration shown the benefi- 
cence of its principles, and given the people that exhibition 
of wise and frugal government which the President fore- 
shadowed; in which strength was sought and obtained, 
not by standing armies, large naval establishments, a great 
judiciary system, with its equipment of marshals, prose- 
cutors, and prisons; nor yet by centralizing laws and 
kingly ceremonies; but through reliance on the patriotism 
and intelligence of the people; throwing open to them 
every door of observation, and leaving in their hands all 
power and all money not needed for the maintenance of 
government on a scale as little energetic or expensive as 
the protection of the rights of all demanded. 

The great achievement of Mr. Jefferson's first term, aside 
from these inestimable reforms, was the acquisition of 
Louisiana. 

The possession of the mouth of the Mississippi river or 
of any control over the navigation of that stream by a 
foreign power had early attracted Jefferson's attention, and 
impressed him as something to be gotten rid of as soon 
as possible. The recent transfer from Spain to France of 
the Louisiana territory had excited strong feeling in this 
country, and the control of that region with the occupa- 
tion of New Orleans by so great, warlike, and ambitious 
a nation as France was especially disquieting to Jefferson. 
He accordingly first undertook negotiations through Liv- 
ingston, our minister, for the purchase of New Orleans and 
some territory on the east side of the river. Soon after, 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION, g X 

however, he sent, as special envoy, James Monroe, with 
verbal instructions to negotiate, if possible, this purchase. 
Monroe reached France at a time when Napoleon was 
pressed for money, and, finding that he could purchase all 
of Louisiana, promptly executed the bargain for $15,000,000. 
Jefferson warmly approved, and, although the Federalists 
denied his constitutional authority to make the purchases, 
he urged on Congress the immediate ratification of the 
transaction, saying to his friends that " the less said about 
our constitutional difficulty the better." The treaty was 
promptly ratified and this momentous transaction consum- 
mated, rather as a matter of general popular approbation 
than of constitutional authority. 

Jefferson was formally nominated for a second term 
by what is known as the first regular caucus of mem- 
bers of Congress, held in February, 1804. No other 
candidate was thought of. Aaron Burr had forfeited the 
confidence of his party by his conduct in the Presiden- 
tial contest of 1800, and George Clinton, of New York, 
was therefore put on the ticket with Jefferson. The 
Federalists selected, by common understanding, Charles 
C. Pinckney and Rufus King, as their candidates for 
President and Vice-President. The Republican party 
gained all but two States, viz., Connecticut and Dela- 
ware, whose united vote, with two votes from Mary- 
land, gave Pinckney and King each 14 votes. Jefferson 
and Clinton received 162 votes. There were now seven- 
teen States, Ohio having been admitted November 29, 
1802. Hamilton had been shot in a duel with Aaron 



g 2 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Burr, in July, 1804, and the Federalist party, already a 
thing of the past, 'had thus lost its great leader. 

Jefferson's second term was chiefly marked by foreign 
complications. He had a "perfect horror at everything 
like connecting ourselves with the politics of Europe," 
and did not doubt that we should be able to pursue 
our peaceful course between the great belligerents un- 
harmed by their contests and even finding profit in 
them. Neither France nor England, however, was willing 
that this should be, and American commerce was soon 
the sufferer — especially from the depredations of the 
British. In 1806 Jefferson sent in a special message 
looking to retaliation on England, in response to which 
Congress passed an act to prohibit the importation of 
certain English goods after November 15. 

John Randolph, of Virginia, who had hitherto been 
an administration leader, broke off from the Republican, 
or Democratic party, as it even now began to be called, 
and entered into a combination with the Federalists. 
His followers were known as " Quids ; " but the Re- 
publicans still held complete control of both Houses 
and responded to Jefferson's policies and recommenda- 
tions promptly and faithfully. The appearance of a 
redundant revenue in 1806 led him to recommend a 
constitutional amendment authorizing its appropriation to 
internal improvements and education. A treaty made 
with England by Pinckney and Monroe was found to 
contain no guaranty against impressment, and the Presi- 
dent did not hesitate to reject it. Both England and 
France continued their aggressions, and Jefferson advised, 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. j 93 

and Congress promptly undertook, a system of commer- 
cial retaliation by the Embargo Act of 1807. 

This act laid an embargo on all ships and vessels in 
the ports and places within the limits and jurisdiction 
of the United States bound to any foreign port or place. 
Vessels were allowed to go from one port to another 
in the United States under certain regulations, including 
the giving of bonds. This act was supported by John 
Quincy Adams, but soon became very unpopular in New 
England, as it bore disastrously upon her shipping in- 
terests. In order to allay the growing opposition in 
that section it was replaced, in 1809, by the Non-Inter- 
course Act. 

Several facts deserve to be noted in the political 
history of Jefferson's administration. 

Some of the Federal Judges were impeached ; among 
them and most notable was Justice Chase, of Maryland, 
a judge of the Supreme Court, for arbitrary and 
tyrannical conduct in trying cases under the Sedition 
laws. The trial became a mere party contest, and the 
Republicans had not the necessary two-thirds to con- 
vict. 

Aaron Burr was tried on the charge of treason, in 
1807, at Richmond, before Chief-Justice Marshall. The 
real object of his expedition down the Mississippi is 
wrapped in mystery. His trial likewise assumed a par- 
tisan color, and, although Jefferson earnestly endeavored 
to secure his conviction, Burr was acquitted. 

Strong pressure was brought to bear on Jefferson to 
stand for a third term, from influential bodies of citizens 



94 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



and irom State Legislatures, and there is no reason 
to doubt that he could have been re-elected; but he 
firmly declined, thus adding the weight of his great 
example to that of Washington's against the indefinite 
re-eligibility of the President, and in favor of two terms 
as the extreme tenure of the executive office. 

This is not the least in his titles to the gratitude of 
posterity, and it is to be hoped that the unwritten law 
against a third term made by the great statesman who 
first held Presidential office will never again be assailed, 
as in the recent effort of a large part of the Repub- 
lican party in the candidacy of General Grant. 

Madison, who was Secretary of State, seemed in every 
way the proper successor of Jefferson. Randolph, however, 
with a part of the Virginia Legislature supporting him, 
brought forward James Monroe to antagonize him. 
Among the Republicans generally there was an occa- 
sional comment on the continued Virginian ascendancy. 

A caucus of the Republican members of Congress was 
held January 23, 1808, in the face of some opposition, 
which was attended by ninety-four Senators and Repre- 
sentatives. Of the 89 votes cast Madison received 83, 
Monroe 3, George Clinton 3. For Vice-President, Clinton 
received 79 votes, John Langdon 5, Henry Dearborn 3, 
and John Q. Adams 1. Madison and Clinton were thus 
nominated and the caucus, in announcing the result, 
declared that the members had acted " only in their in- 
dividual characters as citizens, from the necessity of the 
case, and from a deep conviction of the importance of 
union to the Republicans throughout the United States 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. , 95 

in the present crisis of both our external and internal 
affairs, and as being the most practicable mode of con- 
sulting and inspecting the wishes of all." The Feder- 
alists by tacit consent gave their votes to Pinckney and 
King, as in the last election. 

The vote in the electoral college stood, 122 for Madi- 
son, 6 for Clinton, 47 for Pinckney. For Vice-President, 
Clinton received 113, Madison 3, Monroe 3, Langdon 9, 
King 47. 

James Madison thus became President and George 
Clinton Vice-President of the United States; and Thomas 
Jefferson retired to Monticello where, for the remainder 
of his life, he enjoyed the respect of the American people 
as a wise and great statesman, and was constantly 
turned to by his party as its most sagacious coun- 
sellor. 



CHAPTER V. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
MADISON, 1809-1817. 



MADISON'S administration inherited the foreign troubles 
of his predecessor and, after many futile efforts to 
secure our rights by negotiation and retaliatory legislation, 
finally abandoned the peace policy and began preparations 
for war. 

The Republicans were in the majority in both Houses 
and supported the administration on all its measures, but, 
numbering among their members such rising young men 
as Clay and Calhoun, naturally inclined to a spirited and 
defiant policy. The Federalists, having censured and crit- 
icised the peace policy and long-enduring patience of the 
Republicans, were equally prompt, and perhaps far more sin- 
cere, in opposing their war policy. When, therefore, war 
was declared, June 18, 1 8 12, the Federal members of Con- 
gress published a protest against it in an address to their 
constituents. Of the war of 1812 it is only necessary to 
say that it was not declared until we had borne, for six 
years, wrongs and insults that would have justified resent- 
ment from the beginning. Both Jefferson and Madison 
were inclined to peaceful measures and both faithfully tried 
to escape the necessity for actual war by commercial legis- 
lation which proved ineffectual. The war itself was not 
(96) 



1\ 



€T> 




JAMES MADISON. 






MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



97 



calculated to feed our national pride until American vessels 
began their dazzling series of victories upon the sea and 
Jackson closed the contest by the great victory at New 
Orleans. 

Peace was negotiated early in 1815 and the news, which 
was received in February, called forth general rejoicing, 
although the chief objects for which the war was declared 
were not settled and some of them not even mentioned in 
the treaty. This was somewhat overlooked in the pride 
over the recent victory and also, perhaps, in the belief that 
the war itself had made it improbable that England would 
ever again insist upon her right of search and impress- 
ment. 

The New England States had disliked the war from the 
outset and had so far expressed their disapprobation of its 
declaration and conduct that England undertook to dis- 
criminate between them and the rest of the Union by 
exempting Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hamp- 
shire from the blockade of the Atlantic coast. 

Illicit trading was so common with the enemy that laws 
had to be passed forbidding it under more extreme pen- 
alties. The Legislature of Connecticut first declared the 
war unnecessary. The Legislature of Massachusetts in- 
vited the other New England States to send delegates to 
a convention at Hartford to confer on the subject of their 
public grievances. In December, 1 8 14, this call gathered 
delegates from all the New England States, who sat for 
three weeks with closed doors and finally made a report to 
their State Legislatures criticising the declaration and man- 
agement of the war, and proposing seven amendments to 



£g THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the Constitution, chiefly to restrict the power of Congress 
to lay embargoes on ships of American citizens, or to inter- 
dict commercial intercourse, or to declare war. The sixth 
made naturalized citizens ineligible to office and the seventh 
forbade a re-election of a president, or the election of a 
president from the same State for two terms in succession. 
If these amendments should not be adopted they recom- 
mended the meeting of a second convention, "with such 
powers and instructions as the exigency of a crisis so mo- 
mentous may require." 

This convention, with its secret sessions and unpatriotic 
resolutions, ending with the above ambiguous threat, cov- 
ered all who took part in it with suspicion and odium for- 
ever afterward. As the news of peace rapidly followed, no 
second convention ever met. 

It was also charged that citizens of New London, Conn., 
made a practice of giving information to the enemy of the 
movements of American vessels by burning blue lights. 
The most humiliating feature of the war of 1812 was the 
capture of Washington and the burning of the Capitol by 
a small force of British soldiers. 

Madison was unanimously nominated for a second term 
by a Republican caucus held May 12, 181 2. John Lang- 
don, of New Hampshire, was nominated for Vice-President, 
receiving 64 votes to 16 for Elbridge Gerry, of Massachu- 
setts, and 2 scattering. 

Langdon declined, however, on account of age, and 
Gerry was nominated by a second caucus by a vote of 74 
to 3 scattering. George Clinton, the Vice-President, died 
a few weeks before the first caucus. 



MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



99 



At least fifty Republican members of Congress did not 
attend these caucuses, especially from New York and the 
New England States. Some favored a more vigorous pros- 
ecution of the war, others were opposed to the war, alto- 
gether, and, singular to say, they united on the same can- 
didate, De Witt Clinton, of New York, who was formally 
put forward by a caucus of the Republican members of the 
New York Legislature held May 29, 18 12. 

Later in the summer a convention of Federalists, in 
which eleven States were represented, met in New York 
and endorsed the nomination of Clinton, with Jared Inger- 
soll, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. They adopted a 
platform declaring opposition to Congressional caucuses; 
"to all customs and usages having for their object the 
maintenance of an official regency to prescribe tenets of 
political faith; to the monopoly of the principal offices by 
particular States, and especial opposition to continuing a 
citizen of Virginia in the executive office another term, 
unless she can show that she enjoys a corresponding 
monopoly of talents and patriotism, after she has been hon- 
ored with the Presidency for twenty out of twenty-four 
years of our constitutional existence;" to continuing public 
men for long periods in public trusts, and to Mr. Madison 
as deficient in decision, energy and efficiency for the pend- 
ing troubles with Great Britain. 

Louisiana having been admitted April 8, 1 812, eighteen 
States took part in the election. Madison received 128 
electoral votes, Clinton 89. Gerry for Vice-President re- 
ceived 131, and Ingersoll S6. 

The National Bank, chartered in 1 79 1 for twenty years, 
7 

L.ofC. 



I00 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

expired in 1811; the effort to re-charter it being defeated 
by a majority of one vote in the House and the casting 
vote of the Vice-President in the Senate; but, five years 
later, April, 18 16, a bill was passed for the charter of a 
second National Bank modelled upon the original bank and 
to run twenty years. 

The expenses of the war with England and the previous 
restrictions on commerce with foreign nations had a neces- 
sary effect upon our revenue system. As already stated 
the Berlin and Milan decrees of Napoleon and the English 
orders in council led to the Embargo in 1807. This was 
modified into the Non-intercourse Act of 1809 and war with 
England followed in 18 12. During the war, import duties 
were doubled and the cutting off our imports being equiva- 
lent to a high, or even prohibitory tariff, certain manufac- 
tures whose products we had previously imported sprang 
up in this country and in the tariff ©f 18 16 some con- 
cession was naturally made to these by general consent. 

Especial interest was manifested in cotton and woollen 
fabrics, on which a duty of 25 per cent, was laid to con- 
tinue until 1 8 19 and then fall to 20 per cent. 

The general increase of duties in 18 16 to an average of 
about 20 per cent, was, however, a revenue measure to 
provide for the interest on the war debt. 

Some objection to the caucus system of nominating 
candidates was shown in 1816 when 119 out of 141 Re- 
publican members attended. The candidates for Presi- 
dential nomination were James Monroe, and William H. 
Crawford of Georgia. Monroe received 65, Crawford 54 
votes. Daniel D. Tompkins, of New York, was nominated 



MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. I0I 

for Vice-President. Hitherto the caucus had excited little 
opposition, as public opinion had designated in advance its 
choice, but the large vote given to Crawford now indicated 
that a shrewd politician could develop much more 
strength in a Congressional caucus than he possessed be- 
fore the people. The Federalist party was thoroughly dis- 
credited when the war closed and could make no real con- 
test in this election. Monroe received 183 votes, Rufus 
King 34. Tompkins for Vice-President had 183, Jno. E. 
Howard, of Maryland, 22 ; 12 scattering. 



CHAPTER VI 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
MONROE, 1817-1825. 

JAMES MONROE had been Secretary of State under 
Madison. The eight years covered by his two terms 
have passed into history as the "Era of Good Feel- 
ing." The Federalist party had died out, and nearly all 
citizens called themselves Republicans, and as evidence 
of this Henry Clay was unanimously elected Speaker of 
the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Congresses. 

In 1 8 19 the United States purchased Florida from Spain 
for $5,000,000. In 1820 Missouri and Maine being both 
applicants for admission into the Union, the former as 
a slave, the latter as a free State, the so-called Missouri 
Compromise Act was passed prohibiting forever slavery in 
all territory north of the line of 36 30', after which Maine 
and Missouri were admitted as above. 

In 1 82 1 there were no candidates nominated, and Mon- 
roe received the unanimous vote of the electors with the 
exception of one vote given to John Quincy Adams by an 
elector in New Hampshire who was unwilling that any one 
should share with Washington the honor of a unanimous 
election. Tompkins was re-elected Vice-President. 

There arose no divisions of parties in this adminis- 
(102) 




JAMES MONROE 



MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. I0 ^ 

tration, but there "were in the Republican party the same 
* materials for such division as had existed from the be- 
ginning, and Henry Clay, who prided himself very much 
on being a disciple of Thomas Jefferson, was already devel- 
oping his Tariff and Internal Improvement doctrines and 
becoming a recognized leader of the loose constructionists 
in the country. 

Towards the close of Monroe's administration the ques- 
tion of internal improvements by the federal government 
was raised. The growth of population, the increase of the 
business and trade of the country, and the gradual exten- 
sion of settlement toward the west, naturally called public 
attention to increase of facilities for travel and transpor- 
tation. De Witt Clinton had just completed the New York 
Canal, and, as Benton tells us, had acquired so much popu- 
larity "that candidates for the Presidency began to spread their 
sails on the ocean of internal improvements." Mr. Adams 
and Mr. Clay favored a thorough and enlarged system of 
national highways. Calhoun seems at first to have been 
in accord with them, and Jackson and Crawford did not 
oppose the system, but sought to affix to it such limita- 
tions as would be consistent with their stricter ideas of 
constitutional construction. As preliminary to a general 
system an appropriation was made to make surveys of 
national routes, from which Mr. Monroe did not withhold 
his approval, but when an act was passed for the "preser- 
vation and repair " of what was called the Cumberland Road, 
although it met little opposition in Congress, the Presi- 
dent felt called upon to interpose his veto. This veto was 
accompanied by an elaborate State paper in which he con 



I0 4 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

sidered in turn the several clauses of the Constitution 
under which Congress was supposed to be vested with the 
power of internal improvement, and comes to the conclu- 
sion that the power was not given by any of them, but 
was impliedly withheld by some. He was, however, so 
much impressed with the necessity of a system of internal 
improvements that should be national that he recom- 
mended the submission of an amendment to the several 
States by which Congress should be vested with the power, 
confined to great national works only. In the closing year 
of Mr. Monroe's administration the tariff law of 1824 was 
enacted, in which for the first time the protective idea was 
put strongly to the front. The demands on the treasury 
and the great distress said to be prevailing in the country 
were the general grounds upon which the increase of 
duties was asked for ; and Mr. Clay, advocating the turning 
of a larger proportion of our domestic industries into the 
channel of manufactures, declared that " successive un- 
threshed crops of grain were perishing in our barns for want 
of a mart." The debate was a long, bitter, and to some ex- 
tent a sectional one, and the bill was carried by the close 
vote of 107 to 102 in the House, and of 25 to 21 in the 
Senate. It was during this debate that Mr. Webster made 
his great free trade speech, which as an argument against 
the protective system has not been surpassed in later 
Congressional discussions. The bill was opposed generally 
by the agricultural States of the South and received but 
one vote from Massachusetts; and its passage was finally 
secured, as the passage of such bills is generally secured, 
by a log-rolling combination, in which concession was 



MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. 



105 



made to sufficient local interests to secure the necessary 
number of votes for the passage of the bill. 

No sketch of Monroe's administration would be com- 
plete without a statement of what has ever since been 
known as " The Monroe Doctrine," which, in the apt 
words of President Gilman, his biographer, " was the an- 
nouncement without legislative sanction of a political dic- 
tum, which is still regarded as fundamental, and bears 
with it the stamp of authority in foreign courts as well 
as in domestic councils." It was contained in his annual 
message of December 2, 1823. It set forth: First, that 
the American continents by virtue of the independent con- 
dition which they have assumed and maintained are hence- 
forth not to be considered subjects for colonization by 
European powers. The second principle was, that the 
United States would consider any attempt on the part of 
foreign countries to extend their systems to any portion 
of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. 
This doctrine, that we should keep free of the political 
wrangles of Europe and not permit the powers of the old 
world to interfere with the political affairs of the new, has 
ever since been maintained by our government in all its 
discussions and in all its dealings with foreign nations. 

Long before the expiration of Mr. Monroe's second 
term candidates to the succession became plentiful, and as 
there was but one political party the rivalry was more a 
personal than a political rivalry. There had been a grad- 
ually growing sentiment in the country against the selec- 
tion of candidates by Congressional caucus. It was a species 
of dictation that was sure to become unpopular with the 



I0 6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

people and be resented by them. As long as the caucuses 
merely gave formal expression to the popular sentiment, 
no outcry was made against them; but now there was no 
decided popular current toward any one of the prominent 
candidates. Early in 1824 an effort was made, chiefly in 
the interest of William H. Crawford, of Georgia, the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, to have a formal Congressional cau- 
cus. But of the 261 Senators and Representatives only 
66 met, and it was asserted that 181 were opposed to a 
caucus. This minority caucus nominated Crawford for 
President and Albert Gallatin, of Pennsylvania, for Vice- 
President, adopting the usual resolution that they had acted 
in their individual characters as citizens, and from a deep 
conviction of the importance of union among the Republi- 
cans throughout the United States. Gallatin subsequently 
withdrew from the ticket. The caucus nomination was not 
an element of strength but of weakness to Mr. Crawford. 
More than a year before this, in November, 1822, the Leg- 
islature of Kentucky had formally recommended Mr. Clay 
as a suitable person to succeed Mr. Monroe. The Legis- 
latures of Illinois, Ohio and Louisiana joined in this recom- 
mendation. General Jackson was nominated or recom- 
mended by mass-conventions, first in Tennessee, and then 
in other parts of the country. John Quincy Adams, the 
Secretary of State, received the recommendations generally 
of the New England Legislatures. De Witt Clinton was 
put forward by several local conventions. Calhoun by the 
Legislature of South Carolina. Crawford by the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia. As it became evident that no one of 
these candidates would receive a majority of the electoral 



MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. 



107 



votes, the contest was to put each one among the three 
highest, so that his name might go before the House of 
Representatives. In this election twenty-four States took 
part. In Vermont, New York, Delaware, South Carolina, 
Georgia and Louisiana the Legislatures chose the electors; 
in the other States there were popular elections. In Maine, 
Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois and Kentucky by elec- 
toral districts ; in the rest by a general ticket. For Vice- 
President, ' after the withdrawal of Gallatin, there was a 
general concurrence of opinion toward Calhoun. When 
the electoral votes were counted, it was found that Andrew 
Jackson had received 99 votes, carrying all the Southern 
States, except Georgia and Virginia, which voted for Craw- 
ford, and, in addition thereto, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Indiana and Illinois. Adams received the votes of all the 
New England States, and nearly all the vote of New York, 
and had 84 votes. Crawford had 41 votes. Clay carried 
Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky and four of New York's votes, 
and had 37 votes. For Vice-President, Calhoun received 
182 votes, and was declared elected. 

The names of Jackson, Adams and Crawford were, 
therefore, referred to the House, where the vote on the 
first ballot stood, Adams, 8/; Jackson, 71, and Crawford 
54. Adams having received the votes of Maine, New 
Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, New York, Maryland, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mis- 
souri, Ohio and Illinois — thirteen States in all — was declared 
elected. Jackson received the votes of New Jersey, Penn- 
sylvania, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee 
and Indiana — seven States in all. Crawford received the 



I0 g THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

votes of Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia 
— four States. Out of the bitterness of this struggle came 
the division of the Republican party into two branches, or 
two political parties, which for several succeeding Presi- 
dential contests opposed each other in this country. As 
Mr. Clay's friends had largely gone to Adams in accord- 
ance with Mr. Clay's expressed preference, and as Mr. 
Clay himself became the Secretary of State of the new 
administration, a cry of bargain and corruption was raised, 
which followed Mr. Clay to the close of his public life, 
and undoubtedly affected his political fortunes. The be- 
lief that there had been a corrupt intrigue between Clay 
and Adams fastened itself on the minds of a large number 
of people in the country, and took full possession of An- 
drew Jackson, who felt that he had been, in some way, de- 
frauded out of the Presidency, an idea which his friends 
took care should not die out. So the battle for the suc- 
cession began almost immediately. History has long since 
acquitted Mr. Clay of any corrupt combination in this 
matter, and only declares that he made a mistake, in the 
temper of parties of that time, in becoming a member of 
Adams' administration. 



CHAPTER VII. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, 1825-1829. 



WITH the inauguration of Mr. Adams "the era of 
good feeling" and the apparent unification of par- 
ties rapidly disappeared, and almost from the beginning 
the struggle for the succession began. Andrew Jackson 
was formally nominated by the Legislature of Tennessee as 
early as October, 1825, and promptly accepted the nomina- 
tion. The Republican camp thus became divided into two 
opposing armies, called at first " the Adams men " and 
" the Jackson men." With the former were now included 
the followers of Clay, with the latter were consolidated 
the recent supporters of Crawford. Adams, both in his 
inaugural address and in his first message to Congress, 
took strong grounds in favor of a system of national in- 
ternal improvements, arguing in opposition to the position 
of Mr. Monroe, in his veto of the Cumberland Road 
Bill, in favor of the constitutional right of Congress to 
undertake such a system. This, together with other broad 
views avowed by the President or implied in his recom- 
mendations, soon developed the old line of division be- 
tween the followers of Jefferson and those of Hamilton, 

the latter going to the support of the administration, the 

(109) 



no 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



former rallying against it. Both still called themselves 
Republicans, but the loose constructionists gradually as- 
sumed the name of National Republicans, and the fol- 
lowers of Jefferson from Democratic Republicans were in 
time known as the Democratic party. The first Congres- 
sional election returned an anti-administration majority, 
and from that time to the end of his term Adams was 
confronted by a Congress unfriendly in both branches. 
This put an end to the general scheme for national in- 
ternal improvements. 

Much debate was had on a proposition suggested by 
the late election to change the manner of choosing the 
President, and, as in nearly all the other discussions of the 
administration, it partook of a strongly political character. 
The administration of Mr. Adams became more unpopular 
as time went on. Many charges were brought against it, 
which were fully believed at the time, as to its aristocratic 
or anti-popular tendency, and the President was not a man 
to build up a strong personal following or even a great 
political party. 

The tariff of 1828 was the chief event of ^Adams' ad- 
ministration and as the beginning and cause of great sec- 
tional troubles in the country deserves especial mention. 
It seems to have been a part of the political campaigning 
of the times to preface a Presidential election with a new 
tariff law. We have already referred to the tariff bill of 
1 8 16. A general tariff bill failed in 1820 by the casting 
vote of the President of the Senate. In 1824 a bill was 
passed by narrow majorities, after a long struggle, and 
now, in 1828, new legislation was demanded in the direc- 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. Tll 

tion of higher rates. In the period between the first 
tariff and that of 1816 no less than seventeen acts had 
passed, generally in the same direction. By that time the 
rate of duty had gone up from 8*4 to about 30 per cent, 
on dutiable goods. In 1824 the increase had reached 37 
per cent., and in that tariff a duty was, for the first time, 
placed on wool. As England soon after reduced her 
duties on wool, giving to her manufacturers cheaper raw 
material, our woollen manufacturers raised the first cry of 
distress against her competition, and those of Boston sent 
a petition to Congress, in 1826, asking more protection. 
A bill introduced in accordance with their wishes was 
tabled in the Senate by the casting vote of the .Vice- 
President. 

The following year a convention met at Harrisburg 
which widened the combination so as to include iron, steel, 
hemp, glass, wool and woollens, for all of which it de- 
manded more protection. The new tariff bill introduced 
in 1828 was based on the recommendations of this con- 
vention. It was built up around wool and woollens and 
it was constructed, as had been its immediate forerun- 
ners, on the principle of conceding protection to a suffi- 
cient number of local interests to secure the votes neces- 
sary to its passage. 

Many members avowed their support to rest upon this 
ground. It thus became not only an incongruous, but a 
sectional bill, and called forth the bitter opposition of the 
Southern members, who regarded it as outrageously op- 
pressive upon their constituents. Calhoun had strongly ad-, 
vocated the protective tariff of 18 16. He began now to 



112 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

look to the Kentucky and Virginia resolution of 1798 for 
a defence for his State and section against the tariff of 
1828. Mr. Webster, whose speech against the protective 
policy in 1824 undoubtedly expressed the permanent con- 
victions of his mind as to that system, now changed his 
attitude with the supposed change in the interests of his 
constituents under the tariff. 

The tariff of 1828 cannot be called a party measure, as 
many Jackson men voted for it, but it was, after all, a 
bid of the Adams administration for a re-election, although 
it became, in passing through Congress, a very different 
measure from what they intended it to be as first pre- 
sented. The average rate of dutiable goods was now 41 
per cent., and the tariff by which this result was reached 
was, in its details, so clearly the work of intrigue and sel- 
fish scrambles that it has passed into history as the Tariff 
of Abominations. 

The progress of Democratic ideas had been marked in 
recent years by the abolition of restrictions and qualifica- 
tions of the right of suffrage and by a transfer, in nearly 
all of the States, of the right of choosing electors for 
President from the Legislatures to the people. Of the 
twenty- four States participating in the election of 1828 
only South Carolina and Delaware chose electors by their 
Legislatures. In New York, Maine, Maryland and Ten- 
nessee the choice was by districts; in the other States — 
eighteen in number — by general ticket. On the popular 
vote Jackson received 647,276 votes, Adams 508,064 votes. 
In the electoral college Jackson had 118, Adams 83. For 



JOHN QUINCY ADAMS' ADMINISTRATION. jj-, 

Vice-President Calhoun received 171, Richard Rush 83, 
Smith, of South Carolina, 7. 

" The election of General Jackson," says Mr. Benton, 
" was a triumph of Democratic principle and an assertion 
of the people's right to govern themselves. That principle 
had been violated in the Presidential election in the House 
of Representatives in the session of 1824 and 1825, and 
the sanction or rebuke of that violation was a leading 
question in the whole canvass. It was also a triumph 
over the protective policy, the federal internal improvement 
policy, the latitudinous construction of the Constitution, and 
of the Democracy over the Federalists, then called Na- 
tional Republicans, and was the re- establishment of parties 
on principle, according to the landmarks of the early ages 
of the government." 



CHAPTER VIII. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
JACKSON, 1829-1837. 



THE administration of Andrew Jackson deserves a fuller 
treatment in any history of the Democratic party 
than comes within the scope of this rapid sketch. It was 
full of movement; of exciting contests, political and per- 
sonal; a time of collision between great parties, under the 
leadership of the most imperious party leaders that have 
ever appeared in American politics. From the great strug- 
gle between the administration and the bank to the Cabi- 
net troubles over the social position , of Peggy Eaton, it 
never lacks interest or lapses into dullness. Indeed, a 
man of such strong personality as Jackson never appears 
in the public arena without fastening the eyes of the 
people upon him. He came to the Presidency at the 
advanced age of sixty-two years, having previously held 
many offices, civil and military. He was the first Repre- 
sentative in Congress from the new State of Tennessee, 
and was one of the twelve members of the House who 
voted against the address to Washington at the close of 
his administration. 

After a year's service in the House he was appointed 
to a vacancy in the Senate, which, however, he resigned 
(114) 




ANDREW JACKSON. 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. ntj 

in a few months. Two years later he was made a Judge 
of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, which position he 
held for six years — from 1798 to 1804 — having meantime 
been elected a major-general of militia. After several 
years' quiet life as a planter, he gained such distinction 
as an officer in the Creek war that he was made a major- 
general in the United States army, and put in command 
of the Department of the South. The brilliant victory at 
New Orleans, coming at the close of a war in which there 
had been an almost uniform series of disasters to our land 
forces, at once gave him a position in the eyes and in 
the admiration of the people that promised political honor 
and influence, and some of his personal adherents seem 
very early to have taken upon themselves to prepare the 
way for his Presidential candidacy. 

If he had any ambition it was entirely a military am- 
bition, and he did not take kindly to the project, declaring 
that he did not consider himself the right sort of a man 
and that he felt old and ill. We have already referred to 
the election of 1824, and how gradually the idea seemed 
to gain possession of Jackson that in some way the peo- 
ple had been defrauded in his defeat, and that Adams had 
been elected by a corrupt intrigue with Clay. From that 
time forward he became the bitter enemy of Clay, and to 
that enmity alone we must ascribe the failure of this mag- 
nificent party leader to reach the goal of his ambition — 
the Presidency of the United States. 

Passing over the spirited and successful diplomacy of 
his early administration, by which he secured payment 
from France and other European nations of long-standing 



H6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

claims for spoliations and recovered our. trade with the 
British West Indies, we will glance at the most important 
questions of internal policy that clearly touch the history 
and fortunes of the Democratic party during his admin- 
istrations. 

First, as to the question of internal improveme*- s : 
Jackson took the position laid down by Mr. Monroe in 
his Cumberland Road veto. In his first message he ex- 
pressed his hostility to the general policy of internal im- 
provements; in 1830 he vetoed the bill authorizing sub- 
scription by the United States to the stock of the Mays- 
ville and Lexington Road, in Kentucky; and in 1832 he 
recommended the sale of all the stocks held by the United 
States in canals, turnpikes, etc. While not able at once 
to put an end to the abuse he curtailed it, and •" used 
the exceptional strength of his political influence to do 
what no one else would have dared to do in meeting a 
strong and growing cause of corruption." * The sense of 
injustice and injury which was fast taking possession of 
the South because of the sectional character of the tariff 
legislation, was brought to a head by the "tariff of abom- 
inations" passed in 1828, and Southern statesmen began to 
look around for some defence against the further and con- 
tinued spoliation of their section under the pretext of 
protection to American industry. They had purposely, 
when they found they could not defeat that tariff, made it 
as bad as they could, and driven from its support some 
who were its original promoters by the vicious amend- 

* Sumner's " Jackson," 194. 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. ny 

ments voted on the bill as it passed through Congress. It 
cannot be denied that the complaints of the Southern 
producers of cotton, and of other agricultural products 
that formed the bulk of our exports, were fully justified. 
The burdens of government were cast upon them with 
undue weight; the burden of supporting the industries of 
other sections of the Union were, by law, placed upon 
them with unfair discrimination. Their statesmen, however, 
sought a remedy that unfortunately turned attention away 
from their wrongs to the danger and inherent viciousness 
of the remedy. Turning to the Kentucky and Virginia 
resolutions, they evolved from them the doctrine of Nul- 
lification ; or the doctrine that each State has the right to 
veto a federal law which it deems unconstitutional. Sev- 
eral of the States adopted, or endorsed, this principle, and 
the utterances of their public men generated the idea that 
a dissolution of the Union was contemplated in the event 
that no relief could be secured. On April r3, 1830, a 
banquet was given in Washington to celebrate Jefferson's 
birthday, at which Jackson gave as his toast: "Our Fed- 
eral Union ; it Must be Preserved ! " The Vice-President, 
Calhoun, responded with one extolling liberty as worth 
more than union. 

This incident showed Jackson's attitude toward nullifi- 
cation, although it was equally well known that he was 
a strong States' rights man. Meantime, through the per- 
sonal enmity of Crawford to Calhoun, and doubtless also 
with some help from Van Buren, a breach had been made 
between Jackson and Calhoun, who had confidently ex- 
pected to succeed Jackson at the end of his first term, 



n 8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

when it was supposed he would voluntarily retire. Be- 
sides the personal hatred of Crawford, the personal ambi- 
tion of Van Buren, who was paving the way to the 
succession for himself, the refusal of the Vice-President's 
wife to extend social courtesies to Mrs. Eaton was also a 
factor in this estrangement 

The nullification movement gradually become confined 
to a single State, and must be treated in connection with 
the tariff legislation proposed or enacted in the years im- 
mediately following. 

We have already stated that the Bank of the United 
States had been chartered in 1816 to run for twenty years. 
Its charter therefore would expire in 1836 — three years 
after the close of Jackson's first term. In his first message 
he called attention to the bank and expressed himself 
hostile to a renewal of its charter. The grounds of his op- 
position did not appear very clearly but they were doubt- 
less an inheritance of the old Jefifersonian hostility to a 
National Bank, a conviction that the existing bank was 
mismanaged, and a belief that it was becoming a factor in 
politics, which by reason of its power and its numerous 
branches would be dangerous to the rights of the people 
and to Democratic government. Again in 1830, and in 
1 83 1, in his annual messages, he reiterated his hostility to 
the chartering of this bank. In 1832 the Presidential elec- 
tion was to take place. Jackson had already been put in 
nomination by the Legislature of Pennsylvania and of 
some of the other States. 

The Anti-Masons — a party that sprang up on the alleged 
abduction of William Morgan, in New York, in 1826, for 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. , ng 

having written a book professing to reveal the secrets of 
free-masonry, and which had rapidly spread in the North 
— held a National Convention in Baltimore in September, 
1 83 1, and nominated William Wirt, of Maryland, for Presi- 
dent, and Amos Ellmaker, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-Presi- 
dent. Wirt was a Clay man but accepted the nomination, 
hoping that all the anti-Jackson men would unite on him. 
The National Republicans also met in Baltimore in 
December, 1 831, and nominated Henry Clay for President 
and John Sergeant of Pennsylvania for Vice-President. 
They issued an address criticising the administration for 
corruption, partisanship, hostility to internal improvements, 
double-dealing with the tariff, and war on the bank. 

The Democratic party also held a Convention in Balti- 
more, May 21, 1832, and nominated Van Buren for Vice- 
President under the two-thirds vote. Clay boldly an- 
nounced his purpose to force the fighting on the tariff, 
and particularly on the bank. The bank thus became, 
whether willingly or not, involved in the Presidential cam- 
paign and allied to one political party. Despite the Presi- 
dent's opposition, its application for a re-charter passed the 
Senate June 1 1, 1832, by 28 to 20, and the House July 3, 
by 107 to 85. Jackson promptly vetoed the bill, and the 
effort to override his veto failed in the Senate by a vote of 
22 to 19. Thus the question was precipitated into the 
Presidential election and as usual the money power was 
fighting against the Democratic party. The bank sub- 
sidized newspapers, scattered documents, and used its 
power and influence wherever possible, but nothing could 



120 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

withstand the popularity of Jackson. On the popular vote 
he received 687,502 votes, Clay 530,189, Wirt 33,108.* 

In the electoral vote Jackson had 219, Clay 49, Wirt 
7 (Vermont). For Vice-President Van Buren had 189, 
Sergeant 49, Wm. Wilkins of Pennsylvania 30. South 
Carolina refused to give her vote for any of the party 
candidates, and voted for John Floyd of Virginia for 
President, Henry Lee of Massachusetts for Vice-President, 
each 11 votes. 

When the tariff of July 14, 1832, was found to diminish 
the revenue taxes, but to leave the protective taxes, which 
bore most unjustly and grievously upon the South, practi- 
cally undiminished, the Nullification sentiment in South 
Carolina became dominant, and the Legislature of that 
State was convened in October, 1832, in special session. 
Without acting upon the question itself, it ordered a con- 
vention to be held on the 19th of November. That con- 
vention passed an ordinance declaring the Acts of 1828 and 
1832 as null and void, and not binding upon South Caro- 
lina, her officers or citizens ; forbade any appeal to the 
Federal Courts from the courts of the State in any case, 
arising under any law passed in pursuance of this ordinance, 
and prescribed an oath of obedience to the ordinance for 
officers and jurors. Any attempt at force, it was declared, 

*" Stanwood's History of Presidential Elections" gives Jackson 687,502 
votes, Clay, including Wirt, 530,189. The figures in Sumner's "Jackson" 
are, Jackson, 707,217; Clay, 328,561; Wirt, 254,720. The vote of Alabama 
is not included in the Jackson column by Stanwood, and possibly increases 
the amount as stated by Prof. Sumner. The latter's Clay and Wirt votes are 
clearly wrong. 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. / I2 l 

would result in the secession of South Carolina from the 
Union. The Ordinance of Nullification was to take effect 
on the 1st of February, 1833. The State Legislature at 
its regular session in November, 1832, passed laws requi- 
site to carry out the ordinance, and if necessary to re- 
assume the separate powers of the State and to prepare it 
for war. This called forth on the 10th of December, 
1832, a proclamation from Jackson. This proclamation, 
written by Livingston, of Louisiana, recited the ordinance, 
the laws passed in pursuance thereof, and the steps taken 
by the State to resist the collection of federal revenue, de- 
clared after arguing the question temperately and fully that 
"the alternatives presented are the repeal of all the acts for 
raising revenue, leaving the government without the means 
of support, or an acquiescence in the dissolution of our 
Union by the secession of one of its parts." He ad- 
dresses the people of South Carolina as fellow-citizens of 
his native State; implores them to halt upon the brink 
of insurrection and treason on which they stand, and after 
reciting the blessings of union, calls for their undivided 
support in his determination to execute the laws, to pre- 
serve the Union by constitutional means, and to arrest, if 
possible, by moderate and firm measures, a necessity of 
recourse to force. There is no doubt that the moderate 
and dignified language, the almost pathetic appeal with 
which he announced his unmistakable purpose to employ 
the whole force of the Union to put down Nullification, 
greatly added to Jackson's popularity at the time, and to 
the honor of his memory in later generations. 

This proclamation of the President was met by a coun-' 



122 THE. NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ter proclamation of the Governor of South Carolina, and 
Mr. Calhoun resigned the Vice-Presidency and entered the 
Senate from that State. 

Congress, happily, effected a satisfactory settlement of 
this threatened trouble: first, by passing the enforcement 
act, conferring upon the President power to enforce the 
tariff; secondly, by adopting the compromise tariff of 1833, 
called Mr. Clay's compromise tariff, because introduced by 
him, but generally supposed to be the result of an agree- 
ment between Clay and Calhoun, both strong anti-Jackson 
men. This compromise provided that the duties in the 
tariff of 1832 in excess of 20 per cent, were to be de- 
creased by one-tenth of that excess on January I of 
every alternate year until January 1, 1842, when one-half 
of the remaining excess was to be taken off and the other 
half on July 1, 1842. After July 1, 1842, there was to 
be an uniform rate of 20 per cent. The preamble to this 
tariff, as first drawn by Mr. Clay, had stated that " after 
March 3, 1840, all duties should be equal, and solely for 
the purpose and with the intent of providing such revenue 
as may be necessary to an economical expenditure by the 
government, without regard to the protection or encourage- 
ment of any bounty of domestic industry whatever." 

Jackson, in his message of 1832, just after his re-elec- 
tion, returned to his fight against the bank. He expressed 
some doubt as to its solvency, recommended that the gov- 
ernment should sell its stock and cease to deposit in the 
bank. On January 1, 1833, the bank reported its assets at 
$80,800,000; liabilities, $37,800,000. The circulation was 
$17,500,000; specie, $9,000,000. Jackson . was convinced 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. , l2 $ 

that the bank would use corrupt means to secure a re- 
newal of its charter, and soon made up his mind to re- 
move the government deposits which might greatly aid in 
this effort. McLane, who was Secretary of the Treasury 
and known to be a bank man, was transferred to the State 
Department, and William J. Duane, of Pennsylvania, ap- 
pointed in his place. On September 18, 1833, Jackson 
read a paper in Cabinet in favor of the removal of the de- 
posits, and declared that he took the responsibility of de- 
ciding that after October I no more public money should 
be deposited in the bank. Duane refused to give this 
order, and was dismissed from the Cabinet. Roger B. 
Taney, subsequently the great Chief-Justice, who was then 
Attorney-General and fully agreed with the President, was 
transferred at once to the Treasury Department and issued 
the /lecessary orders. Public moneys were thereafter de- 
posited in State banks, and the amount on deposit in the 
Bank of the United States was drawn on by current drafts 
until exhausted. 

When the Thirty-third Congress met Mr. Clay at once 
introduced a resolution of censure on the President for the 
removal of deposits, which was passed, and the Senate de- 
clined to receive a protest from the President or to put it 
upon record. In this protest he declared that his ambition 
was tc ''persuade my countrymen, so far as I may, that 
it is not in a splendid government, supported by power- 
ful monopolies and aristocratical establishments, that they 
will find happiness or their liberties protection, but in a 
plain system, void of pomp, protecting all and granting 
favors to none, dispensing its blessings like the dews of 



124 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



heaven, unseen and unfelt, save in the freshness and beauty 
they contribute to produce." The President's friends in the 
House were in the majority and passed resolutions that 
the bank ought not to be rechartered and the deposits 
ought not to be restored. Thus ended, in the complete 
success of the President, his memorable struggle with the 
bank. The power which it displayed in this contest must 
always be the justification for its overthrow. It had be- 
come a danger to Democratic institutions and a possible 
source of political corruption. Its continued existence and 
indefinite expansion would be at the expense of the peo- 
ple and in diminution of their political and pecuniary 
rights. Before it grew too great Jackson throttled it. 

For a time public funds were deposited in the State 
banks, but finally, in the next administration, the sub- 
treasury system was adopted, which, with a brief interval, 
has been continued to this time. Many other questions 
arose in Jackson's administration which are worthy the 
careful investigation of the political student. The proper 
method of dealing with the public lands, the distribution 
of surplus revenues, the Indian question, that of removal 
and appointment to office and othe»s. Judge Holman's 
article in this volume renders unnecessary an examination 
of the land system. 

The act passed June, 1836, provided that after the 1st 
of January, 1837, all surplus revenue exceeding $5,000,000 
should be divided among the States as a loan, to be re- 
called only by direction of Congress. Under this law 
some $28,000,000 were actually distributed, when the 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. I2 q 

financial distresses of the Treasury caused the suspension 
of the law. 

It cannot be denied that Jackson's accession to the 
Presidency marked a change in the Civil Service, as to 
removals and appointments. We have already shown what 
Jefferson did and said under similar circumstances. There 
had been no temptation for intermediate Presidents, who 
had all been of the same party, to make removals for 
partisan reasons. The practice introduced by Jackson of 
replacing political enemies by political friends was adopted 
and advanced by his successors, and finally grew into 
the abuses which led to the Civil Service law. 

As to Jackson himself, it may be said that his sweep 
of the Adams men from office was not nearly so clean a 
sweep as is popularly supposed. 

Mr. Benton gives the fiftieth chapter of his " Thirty 
Years' View " to an examination of this charge, and de- 
clares that in the departments at Washington a majority 
of the incumbents remained opposed to Jackson during 
his administration; of the 8,000 postmasters 491 only 
were removed in the first year of Jackson's administra- 
tion, and of the many thousands of officials subject to 
removal the " totality of removals " in that time were 
690. Professor Sumner in his " Life of Jackson " places 
the number still higher. 

Be this as it may, it was part of the plan by which 
Jackson organized the great party which carried him 
in triumph through all the fierce battles of his turbu- 
lent administration, and which enabled him in retiring 
to private life to become, like Jefferson, the acknowl- 



126 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

edged head of his party for the remainder of his life, 
and one of its great and kindling names for all time. 

Before his term ended he had the happiness of seeing 
the black lines drawn around Mr. Clay's Resolution of 
Censure, by which it was . expunged from the journals 
of the Senate. 

As early as May 20, 1835, eighteen months before the 
election was to occur, the Democratic Convention met in 
Baltimore, and by a unanimous vote nominated Martin 
Van Buren, of New York, for President. Richard M. 
Johnson, of Kentucky, was nominated for Vice-President 
by a vote of 178 to 87 for William C. Rives, of Vir- 
ginia. 

The chief opposition to Jackson's party now began to 
take the name of Whig, at first, says Niles, in Con- 
necticut, and New York. It was meant as a charge of 
Toryism against the alleged personal government of 
Jackson. 

According to the "Whig Almanac" for 1838, as quoted 
in " Stanwood's Presidential Elections," the new party 
was composed : (1) " Most of those, who under the name 
of National Republicans had previously been known as 
supporters of Adams and Clay, and advocates of the 
American system : " (2) " Most of those, who acting in the 
defence of what they deemed or assumed the threatened 
rights of the States had been stigmatized as nullifiers, 
or the less virulent States' rights men, who were thrown 
into a position of armed neutrality towards the adminis- 
tration by the doctrines of the proclamation of 1832 
against South Carolina : " (3) " A majority of those before 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. Y2 j 

known as Anti-Masons:" (4) "Many, who up to that time 
had been known as Jackson men, but who united in 
condemning the high-handed conduct of the executive, 
the immolation of Duane and the subserviency of Taney:" 
(5) " Numbers who had not before taken any part in 
politics, but who were now awakened from their apathy 
by the palpable usurpations of the executive and the im- 
minent peril of our whole fabric of constitutional liberty 
and national prosperity." 

Mr. Clay refused to become a candidate in 1836, and 
the opposition to the Democratic party, instead of com- 
bining their strength, undertook to scatter so as to 
throw the election into the House of Representatives. 

Of the twenty-six States that took part in the election 
— Arkansas and Michigan having been added to the 
Union — Van Buren carried Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode 
Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, 
North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, 
Missouri, Illinois, and Michigan, receiving in all 762,679 
votes at the polls, and 170 in the electoral college. 
Massachusetts cast her 14 votes for Daniel Webster. 
William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, also a Whig candidate, 
received the votes of Vermont, New Jersey, Delaware, 
Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana, making in all 73 
votes in the electoral college. Hugh L. White, of Ten- 
nessee, received the votes of Georgia and Tennessee, 26 
in all. South Carolina voted for Willie P. Mangum, of 
North Carolina, 11 votes. The combined popular vote 
for the Whig candidates, Harrison, Webster, and White, 
amounted to 735,651. 



I2 8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Richard M. Johnson received 147 of the electoral votes 
for Vice-President, Francis Granger, of New York, jj, 
John Tyler, of Virginia, 47, and William Smith, of Ala- 
bama, 23. 

As Johnson thus received one-half, and not a majority 
of the electoral votes, the Senate chose between him 
and Francis Granger, the two highest candidates. He re- 
ceived 33 votes to 16 for Granger. 

On retiring from office, Jackson followed the example 
of Washington, and issued a farewell address to the 
American people, and withdrew to his home in Tennessee 
— The Hermitage — where he died on June 8, 1845. 

It will be a fitting close of this rapid outline of his ad- 
ministration to quote from Benton's description of -the in- 
auguration of Van Buren on the 4th of March, 1837, as it 
referred to Jackson. 

"At twelve he appeared with his successor, Mr. Van 
Buren, on the elevated and spacious eastern portico of the 
capitol, as one of the citizens who came to witness the 
inauguration of the new President, and in no way distin- 
guished from them except by his place on the left hand 
of the President-elect. The day was beautiful — clear sky, 
balmy, vernal sun, tranquil atmosphere, and the assem- 
blage immense. On foot, in the large area in front of the 
steps, orderly without troops, and closely wedged together, 
their faces turned to the portico, presenting to the be- 
holders from all the eastern windows the appearance of a 
field paved with human faces. This vast crowd remained, 
riveted to their places, and profoundly silent, until the 
ceremony of inauguration was over. It was the stillness 
and silence of reverence and affection ; and there was no 
room for mistake as to whom this mute and impressive 
homage was rendered. For once the rising was eclipsed 
by the setting sun. Though disrobed of power and re- 
tiring to the shades of private life, it was evident that the 
great ex-President was the absorbing object of this intense 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. I20y 

regard. At the moment he began to descend the broad 
steps of the portico to take his seat in the open carriage 
which was to bear him away, the deep, repressed feeling 
of the dense mass broke forth, acclamations and cheers 
bursting from the heart and filling the air, such as power 
never commanded nor man in power received. It was the 
affection, gratitude, and admiration of the living age, salut- 
ing for the last time a great man. It was the acclaim of 
posterity breaking from the bosoms of contemporaries. It 
was the anticipation of futurity — unpurchasable homage to 
the hero-patriot, who, all his life, and in all the circum- 
stances of his life, in peace and in war, and glorious in 
each, had been the friend of his country, devoted to her, 
regardless of self. Uncovered, and bowing, with a look 
of unaffected humility and thankfulness, he acknowledged 
in mute signs his sensibility to this affecting overflow of 
popular feeling. I was looking down from a side window 
and felt an emotion which had never passed through me 
before. I had seen the inauguration of many Presidents 
and their going away, and their days of state, vested with 
power, and surrounded by the splendor of the first magis- 
tracy of a great republic. But they all appeared to be as 
pageants, empty and soulless, brief to view, unreal to the 
touch, and soon to vanish. But here there seemed to be a 
reality — a real scene — a man and the people, he laying 
down power, and withdrawing through the everlasting por- 
tals of fame; they sounding in his ears the everlasting 
plaudits of unborn generations. Two days after, I saw the 
patriot ex-President in a car which bore him off to his 
desired seclusion. I saw him depart with that look of 
quiet enjoyment which bespoke the inward satisfaction of 
the soul at exchanging the cares of office for the repose of 
home. History, poetry, oratory, marble and brass, will hand 
down the military exploits of Jackson : this work will com- 
memorate the events of his civil administration, not less 
glorious than his military achievements, great as they were; 
and Jthis brief notice of his last appearance at the Ameri- 
can capitol is intended to preserve some faint memory of a 
scene the grandeur of which was so impressive to the be- 
holder, and the solace of which must have been so great 
to the heart of the departing patriot." 



CHAPTER IX. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
VAN BUREN, 1837-1841. 



IN his inaugural address the new President declared his 
intention to " follow in the footsteps of his illustrious 
predecessor," and according to the doctrines of the demo- 
cratic school as existing in the original formation of par- 
ties ; close observance to the Federal Constitution as writ- 
ten ; no latitudinarian construction permitted ; or doubtful 
powers assumed; faithful adherence to all its compromises, 
economy in the administration of the government, peace, 
friendship and fair dealing with all foreign nations, en- 
tangling- alliances with none. 

The rise of an abolition party during the last years of 
Jackson's administration called from the President a pledge, 
not to permit interference with slavery in the States where 
it existed, or in the District of Columbia, without the con- 
sent of those States. 

The great financial panic followed soon after the incom- 
ing of the new administration. A general suspension of 
banks, depreciation of currency, and insolvency of the. Fed- 
eral treasury followed a period of surplus revenue. As 
early as the 10th of May, 1837, the New York State banks 

refused to pay gold and silver for their notes, and the Leg- 
(130) 




MARTIN VAN BUREN. 



VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



131 



islature of the State authorized suspension of specie pay- 
ments for one year. This being followed throughout the 
country, the President called a special session of Congress 
to meet on the 4th of September to consider the financial 
distresses of the country and the interests of the govern- 
ment. To this Congress he recommended the adoption of 
the Independent Treasury Plan. 

The financial distresses of the country were quickly 
pointed out by the Bank of the United States, now act- 
ing under a Pennsylvania charter, as resulting from its 
failure to receive a recharter and retain the public de- 
posits; but although Mr. Webster and other friends of 
the bank were its champions no effort to re-establish its 
relations with the United States promised success, and it 
will remain forever to the credit of Van Buren's administra- 
tion that it brought about the final divorce of bank and 
State, by the establishment of the Independent Treasury 
system, whereby the government became the custodian of 
its own money. The " hard times " through which the 
country was passing encouraged the Whigs to believe that 
they could succeed in the campaign of 1840. They met in 
National Convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Decem- 
ber 4, 1839, and adopted a clumsy system of balloting 
through committees, from each State delegation, designed, 
as it was claimed, to head off Mr. Clay's nomination as an 
inexpedient one. General William Henry Harrison, of 
Ohio, was chosen as their candidate for President and John 
Tyler, of Virginia, an ultra States' rights man and strict 
constructionist, who had been acting of late years in oppo- 
sition to the Democratic party. The Democratic Conven- 



!32 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



tion met in Baltimore May 5, 1840, and renominated Van 
Buren unanimously ; adopted resolutions declaring it inex- 
pedient to nominate a candidate for Vice-President, inas- 
much as some of the States which had nominated Van 
Buren had put in nomination different persons for Vice- 
President, and some of said States were not represented in 
the Convention. 

The platform adopted by the Convention deserves to be 
reproduced in full, as.it contains a clear and definite state- 
ment of the position of the Democratic party on the great 
questions of the day, and shows how faithfully Jackson 
and Van Buren had led it along the lines of Jefferson's 
teachings, and had finally freed it from its careless ideas 
on the question of internal improvements by the general 
government. 

The resolution as to the assumption of State debts con- 
tracted for internal improvements or other purposes refers 
to a scheme then on foot, and largely stimulated by Eng- 
lish holders of the discredited bonds of the States, to secure 
their assumption by the federal government. 

The nine resolutions which make up the platform of 
1 840 are as follows : 



1. That the federal government is one of limited powers, 
derived solely from the Constitution, and the grants of 
power shown therein ought to be strictly construed by all 
the departments and agents of the government, and that 
it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise doubtful con- 
stitutional powers. 

2. That the Constitution does not confer upon the gen- 
eral government the power to commence or carry on a 
general system of internal improvement. 



VAN BIJREN'S ADMINISTRATION. j^ 

3. That the Constitution does not confer authority upon 
the federal government, directly or indirectly, to a assume 
the debts of the several States, contracted for local internal 
improvements or other State purposes; nor would such 
assumption be just or expedient. 

4. That justice and sound policy forbid the federal gov- 
ernment to foster one branch of industry to the detriment 
of another, or to cherish the interest of one portion to the 
injury of another portion of our common country — that 
every citizen and every section of the country has a right 
to demand and insist upon an equality of rights and 
privileges, and to complete and ample protection of per- 
sons and property from domestic violence or foreign ag^ 
gression. 

5. That it is the duty of every branch of the govern- 
ment to enforce and practice the most rigid economy in 
conducting our public affairs, and that no more revenue 
ought to be raised than is required to defray the neces- 
sary expenses of the government. 

6. That Congress has no power to charter a United 
States Bank ; that we believe such an institution one of 
deadly hostility to the best interests of the country, dan-* 
gerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of 
the people, and calculated to place the business of the 
country within the control of a concentrated money 
power, and above the laws and the will of the people. 

7. That Congress has no power, under the Constitution, 
to interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the 
several States ; and that such States are the sole and 
proper judges of everything pertaining to their own affairs, 
not prohibited by the Constitution ; that all efforts, by 
abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to inter- 
fere with questions of slavery, or take incipient steps in 
relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarm- 
ing and dangerous consequences, and that all such efforts 
have an inevitable tendency to diminish the happiness of 
the people and endanger the stability and permanency of 
the Union, and ought not to be countenanced by any 
friend to our political institutions. 

8. That the separation of the moneys of the govern- 
ment from banking institutions is indispensable for the 



!34 THE^ NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

safety of the funds of the government and the rights of 
the people. 

9. That the liberal principles embodied by Jefferson in 
the Declaration of Independence, and sanctioned • in the 
Constitution, which makes ours the land of liberty and the 
asylum of the oppressed of every nation, have ever been 
cardinal principles in the Democratic faith ; and every 
attempt to abridge the present privilege of becoming citi- 
zens, and the owners of soil among us, ought to be re- 
sisted with the same spirit which swept the Alien and 
Sedition Laws from our statute-book. 



The campaign of 1840 is a most remarkable one; a 
contest between a party with definite and well-understood 
policies and principles, under the lead of a candidate who 
was a thorough representative of these policies and prin- 
ciples on the one side, and a party unable to formulate 
any platform of policies, led by a candidate whose popu- 
larity rested not on statesmanship but largely on his suc- 
cess as an Indian fighter, associated with whom was a 
Southern politician, whose extreme States' right views had 
carried him out of the party of Jackson to the party of 
Calhoun. 

But while the argument was all on one side, the noise 
and enthusiasm were all on the other. The " Log-Cabin " 
and " Hard Cider " and " Coon-Skins " were taken as 
symbols of the Harrison party, which represented the 
identification of the candidate with the plain and poor 
people. Yet the Bank of the United States and the State 
banks plunged into the campaign with all their influence, 
the former to secure its recharter, the latter to secure 
a repeal of the Independent Treasury Act. The distresses 
of the earlier years of the administration were used to 



VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



135 



frighten the people from re-electing Van Buren. The 
papers were filled with advertisements declaring that the 
subscriber would pay a certain sum for pork or flour or 
other products if Harrison were elected, and one-half only 
of that sum if Van Buren were elected. 

The working man was to have good wages and high 
living in the former event, and low wages and starva- 
tion in the latter. Doggerel songs, constant public pro- 
cessions, monster gatherings, excursions, frequent speak- 
ing, every means that could be devised to work the whole 
country into a delirium of excitement were used. The 
election in the States preceding the general election fore- 
shadowed the result, but not such a tidal wave as over- 
whelmed the administration and bore the Whig candidates 
into power. On the popular vote Harrison had 1,275,016, 
Van Buren 1,129,102; but Harrison had carried 19 out 
of 27 States, and received 234 out of 294 electoral votes. 
Tyler had the same. It was apparently a complete over- 
throw of the Democratic party. But it did not dampen 
its courage or lessen its faith. It felt that its principles 
could not be overthrown, and the tide of popular excite- 
ment would soon ebb away and leave its opponents, 
united on no common principles, again in the minority. 

A significant fact in the election was the appearance of 
an Abolition party, which cast 7,000 votes for James G. 
Birney, of New York, for President. It will be observed 
that while Van Buren increased his vote 364,000 on his 
previous election he was still beaten, a fact which led the 
Democrats to charge that frauds had been committed; but 
of this no proof has been given. The administration of 



1^6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Van Buren had been a successful one. He had met and 
ridden safely through a fearful financial storm, but he left 
the country prosperous, and his administration had gen- 
erally been statesmanlike £nd true to Democratic prin- 
ciples. 




JOHN TYLER. 



CHAPTER X. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENTS 
HARRISON AND TYLER, 1841-1845. 



HARRISON was inaugurated March 4, 1841. He died 
April 4, 1 841, having done little more than appoint 
his Cabinet, with Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, 
and a very able set of associates, and issued a call for a 
special session of Congress for May 31. The call merely 
said " that sundry and weighty matters, principally grow- 
ing out of the condition of the revenue and finances of 
the country, appear to call for the convocation of Con- 
gress." 

John Tyler was the first Vice-President who succeeded 
to the office of President by the death of the Chief Magis- 
trate. 

When the Twenty-seventh Congress met as convened in 
special session by President Harrison, the Whigs had a 
majority in both Houses, and immediately set to work to 
accomplish the financial legislation for which they had 
been fighting so long. 

Mr. Clay, in the Senate, assumed the leadership, and in 

the first week of its session offered a resolution setting 

forth six subjects, which should first, if not exclusively, 

engage the deliberations of Congress at that session. 

(i37) 



I38 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

These were: 1st. The repeal of the Sub-Treasury Act. 
2d. The incorporation, of a bank adapted to the wants of 
the people and of the government. 3d. The provision of 
an adequate revenue for the government by the imposition 
of duties, and including authority to contract a temporary 
loan to cover the public debt created by the last admin- 
istration. 4th. The prospective distribution of the proceeds 
of the sale of the public lands. 5th. The passage of ap- 
propriation bills. 6th. Some modification of the banks of 
the District of Columbia for the benefit of the people of 
the District. 

The first of these measures — the repeal of the Inde- 
pendent Treasury Act — was carried through rapidly and by 
a strictly party vote and was promptly approved by Presi- 
dent Tyler. 

Next in order, they framed and carried through a bill 
to incorporate the Fiscal Bank of the United States. 
Although framed at the Treasury Department and sup- 
posed to be approved by the President, it was, greatly to 
the surprise and indignation of the Whigs, vetoed by 
Tyler. He objected to the bank on constitutional grounds 
and declared that he would commit a crime, in view of 
his previous opinions on that subject, should he now 
approve this bill, but seemed to leave the way open for a 
bill that would meet his constitutional objections. The 
Whigs generally suppressed their annoyance, and went 
to work to frame another bill that would secure the 
President's approval, but Henry Clay could not forbear 
expressing strong criticism and censure of the President 
for his action. In his speech he said that "bank or no 



HARRISON AND TYLER'S ADMINISTRATION. 



139 



bank had been the great issue of the Presidential canvass." 
A second bill was hastily prepared and passed, and this 
also the President vetoed September 9. This veto was re- 
ceived with unspeakable indignation by the Whigs, who 
began to realize that their success in the last campaign 
was to go for naught — the cup of power was to be dashed 
from their lips when they had scarcely sipped from it — 
and that this President of their own making had set him- 
self to break up their party and to become the leader, 
himself, of a new party much nearer to their opponents 
than to themselves. The reading of his veto message was 
received with hisses in the Senate, and his entire Cabinet, 
with the exception of Mr. Webster, his Secretary of State, 
resigned. The Whig members of Congress issued an ad- 
dress to the people, in which they repudiated the President 
and declared that all connection between them and John 
Tyler was at an end from that time forth. 

Thus in this first extra session of Congress, extending 
from the 31st of May to the 13th of September, the Whig 
party had turned fiercely upon the President, and the 
Democratic party had begun to support him as being in 
the main favorable to their policies, and already through 
him they saw the road opening to their return to power. 
There was in Congress a small party called the " Cor- 
poral's Guard," or "Tyler men," which supported the ad- 
ministration and were the personal followers of the Presi- 
dent. At the regular session of Congress the Whigs came 
into collision with the President on the tariff question also. 
An empty treasury called loudly for increased revenues. 
The Whigs passed a bill designed to continue the duties 



140 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



under the tariff of 1833, coupled with a provision for dis- 
tributing any surplus revenue among the States. This was 
vetoed by the President as a violation of the solemn ad^ 
justment of a great and agitating question made by the 
compromise of 1833. A second bill, differing not greatly 
from the first and still containing the land revenue dis- 
tribution clause, was passed. This also was vetoed, and a 
third bill, which raised the duties above the ?o per cent, 
agreed upon in the compromise, but suspending land rev- 
enue distribution while such duties were above the com- 
promise limit, was approved on the 30th of August, 1842, 
and became a law. The Congressional election of 1843 
turned the House over to the Democratic party. 

The question of the annexation of Texas was now be- 
coming a prominent one and called forth the opposition 
of the anti-slavery people of the North. A treaty with 
Texas which provided for annexation, concluded by the 
administration, was rejected by the Senate by a more than 
two-thirds vote. 

The Whig National Convention met in Baltimore on 
the first day of May, 1844. There was no division in 
their party now as to who should be their candidate. 
The party was united for Clay, and the divisions in the 
Democratic party gave every promise of success. Mr. 
Clay was nominated by acclamation, and on the fourth 
ballot Theodore Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, was named 
for Vice-President — his opponents being John* Davis, of 
Massachusetts, and Millard Fillmore, of New York. The 
platform was very brief, and in" a single resolution summed 
up the principles of the party as favoring a well-regulated 



HARRISON AND TYLER'S ADMINISTRATION. I4I 

currency, a tariff for revenue necessary to defray the ex- 
penses of the government, and discriminating for the pro- 
tection of the domestic labor of the country, the distribu- 
tion of the proceeds from the sales of public lands, a 
single term for the Presidency, a reform of executive 
usurpations, and generally such an administration of the 
affairs of the government that shall impart to every branch 
of the public service the greatest practical efficiency con- 
trolled by a well-regulated and wise economy. 

The Democratic Convention met twenty-seven days later. 
From the hour it was known that Van Buren had been 
defeated there seemed an almost universal concentration on 
him as its standard bearer in 1844; but as the question 
of the annexation of Texas forged to the front, and it 
was found that he was committed against that, an oppo- 
sition arose which finally succeeded in defeating him and 
bringing about the nomination of James K. Polk, of Ten- 
nessee, who had been little thought of and not voted for 
in the earlier ballots of the convention. Of the 266 votes 
Mr. Van Buren began with 146, a majority, but less than 
the necessary two-thirds. On the seventh ballot the vote 
stood: Van Buren, 99; Cass, 123; Johnson, 21, and James 
Buchanan, 22. On the eighth ballot James K. Polk re- 
ceived 44 votes, and by a stampede received the nomina- 
tion of the convention on the ninth ballot. Silas Wright 
was nominated for Vice-President, but declined, and George 
M. Dallas, of Pennsylvania, was chosen as the candidate 
for Vice-President. The platform reaffirmed the resolutions 
of 1840, which we have already quoted, and made the fol- 



!42- THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



lowing somewhat satirical thrust at the Whig campaign 
of that year: 

Resolved: That the American Democracy place their 
trust, not in factitious symbols, not in displays and ap- 
peals insulting to the judgment and subversive of the 
intellect of the people, but in a clear reliance on the 
intelligence, patriotism and discriminating justice of the 
American people. 

Additional resolutions declared that the proceeds of the 
public land sales ought to be sacredly applied to the 
objects specified in the Constitution, and opposed the 
laws lately adopted distributing such proceeds among the 
States as inexpedient in policy and unconstitutional; also 
opposing the taking from the President his qualified veto 
power, and asserting our title to the whole of the 
Territory of Oregon, and in favor of the reoccupation 
of Oregon, and the re-annexation of Texas, at the earliest 
practical period as great American measures, which this 
convention recommends, and the cordial support of Demo- 
cratic union. 

The Abolitionists met under the name of the Liberty 
party, at Buffalo, in the previous August, and nominated 
James G. Birney, of New York, for President, and 
Thomas Morris, of Ohio, for Vice-President. They adopted 
a long platform, which cannot be summarized. 

A convention of Mr. Tyler's friends also met in Balti- 
more on the same day as the Democratic Convention and 
nominated him for re-election. He accepted the nomina- 
tion, but subsequently withdrew, and threw his influence 
to the support of Polk. 



HARRISON AND TYLER'S ADMINISTRATION. j^ 

The campaign of 1844 was an exciting one. The 
Democratic party fought to recover the power from 
which it believed itself accidentally thrust out in the pre- 
vious election; and the Whig party, devotedly attached 
to Henry Clay, gave him its most enthusiastic support. 
On the popular vote Polk received 1,337,243 and Clay 
1,299,062 votes. This gave Polk 170 electoral votes and 
Clay 105. Birney received 62,300 votes. His vote added 
to that of Clay would have given the latter the elec- 
toral votes of New York and Michigan and resulted in 
Polk's defeat. 

The joint resolution to annex Texas was passed in 
the closing days of Tyler's administration. 



CHAPTER XL 

HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
POLK, 1 845-1 849. 

THE annexation of Texas, provided for by the joint 
resolutions passed at the close of Tyler's adminis- 
tration, was made complete by the action of Congress 
a few days after it assembled in 1845. The first reso- 
lution provided that four States, in addition to the State 
of Texas, might hereafter, with the consent of that State, 
be formed out of its territory, and be entitled to admis- 
sion under the provisions of the Federal Constitution ; 
the States so formed and lying south of the Missouri 
compromise line, 36 30', to be admitted into the Union, 
with or without slavery, as the people of each State 
asking admission might desire ; north of said line slavery 
or involuntary servitude to be prohibited. 

The admission of Texas led to the war with Mexico, 
which had never acknowledged the independence of 
Texas, and furthermore claimed as against Texas the 
territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande. 

General Taylor was ordered in January,- 1846, to 

advance to the Rio Grande, and being soon attacked 

by a Mexican force, the President sent a message to 

Congress, informing them that Mexico had " at last in- 
.(144) 




JAMES K. POLK. 



POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. ,. j^ 

vaded our territory and shed the blood of our fellow- 
citizens on our own soil." Congress immediately passed 
an act reciting in its preamble that "by the act of the 
Republic of Mexico a state of war existed between that 
government and the United States," and providing for 
its prosecution. The Whigs generally protested against 
the recital of the preamble, but as generally voted for 
the bill, and, with some reluctance on the part of the 
Northern Whigs, supported the war after it was begun. 
Indeed, they were to take two of their Presidential can- 
didates from its successful generals. 

The war was prosecuted with great success, and by a 
series of victories that strongly ministered to the military 
pride of our people, and gave great popularity to the 
successful Generals, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. 
By the middle of September, 1847, tne latter general 
captured the city of Mexico, after which fighting ceased. 
Peace was restored on the 2d of February, 1848, by the 
treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, under which Mexico relin- 
quished all claim to Texas with the Rio Grande as its 
boundary, and ceded to the United States New Mexico 
and California at the price of fifteen millions of dollars. 
By the acquisition of this new territory the United States 
extended across the continent from ocean to ocean. The 
Liberty party of the North had generally been opposed 
to the war, regarding it as undertaken for the extension 
of slavery, and the slavery question presented itself when- 
ever Congress undertook to acquire territory or to or- 
ganize governments in the territory it had acquired. 

When in August, 1846, the President in a special mes- 



I 4 6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

sage to Congress asked for an appropriation of two mil- 
lions of dollars in order to negotiate a peace with Mexico 
by the purchase ol territory, David Wilmot, a Demo- 
cratic member of the House from Pennsylvania, offered a 
proviso to the bill, which proposed to carry out the 
President's recommendation, making it a fundamental con- 
dition of the acquisition of new territory that " neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in any 
part of said territory except for crime, whereof the party 
shall first be duly convicted." This was the famous 
" Wilmot Proviso," following the language of the ordi- 
nance of 1787, which, as we have already stated, was 
penned by Jefferson. This proviso was adopted in the 
House, calling forth no sectional debate or bitterness ; but 
the immediate adjournment of Congress prevented the 
Senate from acting upon it. An effort to attach the pro- 
viso to a second bill appropriating money, made at the 
second session of the Twenty-ninth Congress, after pass- 
ing the House failed in the Senate, and the bill became 
a law without it. 

Besides the incorporation of Texas into the Union, and 
the acquisition of the immense territory — California and 
New Mexico — embracing more than half a million square 
miles, the disputed boundary of Oregon was settled in this 
administration. 

The Democratic platform of 1844, as we have seen, be- 
sides calling for the annexation of Texas, demanded the 
reoccupation of Oregon. The claim of the United States 
was for a boundary of 54 40' north latitude. England 
claimed that the boundary was along the line of the 



POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. j^~ 

Columbia river. For the past twenty years the. disputed 
territory had been held by the two nations jointly, under 
an arrangement which either could terminate on twelve 
months' notice. This notice was given by the President, 
and after some negotiation and a threatened collision with 
England, the Oregon question was settled in June, 1846, 
by a treaty in which we accepted the 49th parallel as 
the northern boundary of our territory. 

During Mr. Polk's administration the slavery question 
was rising above the horizon, as yet a cloud scarcely big- 
ger than a man's hand, but already affecting the composi- 
tion and destiny of parties. The settlement of the Oregon 
boundary ; the annexation of Texas ; the war with Mexico ; 
the immense acquisition of territory that followed it ; — 
these are the events that will always attract most attention 
in the history of this period ; but the revision of the tariff 
in 1846, on the recommendation of the President and upon 
the plans proposed by his Secretary of the Treasury, 
Robert J. Walker, cannot be lightly passed over by the 
student of our economic history. We have seen how the 
" tariff of abominations " passed in 1S28, followed by the 
distinctively protective tariff of 1832, had brought the 
country to the verge of a civil war. Mr. Clay had come 
forward with his compromise act not only to avert this 
result, but, as he himself declared in 1842, to save the 
system of protection itself. Speaking at that date he said, 
" if the compromise act had not been adopted, the whole 
system of protection would have been swept by the board 

by the preponderating influence of the illustrious man then 
10 



I4 8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

at the head of the government (General Jackson) at the 
very next session after its enactment." 

The average on dutiable articles under the tariff of 1832 
was 33 per cent. By the compromise act there was to be 
an average rate of 20 per cent, on and after the 1st day of 
July, 1842. As shown in the sketch of Tyler's administration, 
the necessities of the treasury permitted the 20 per cent, 
rate to remain for two months only, to wit, from the 1st of 
July to the 1st of September, 1842, when a new tariff law 
was passed. This was a protective tariff and remained in 
force for four years. In 1845 Secretary Walker sub- 
mitted his report to Congress in which he took strong 
grounds against protection and advocated a revenue tariff. 

Polk in his inaugural address had declared himself in 
favor of a tariff for revenue, with such discrimination 
within revenue principles as would confer protection on 
home interests. Within the revenue limit, he declared, 
there was discretion for discrimination ; beyond that limit 
the rightful exercise of power was not conceded. The 
revenue limit he defined, in his first message, to be that 
precise point in the schedule of duties at which it is 
ascertained from experience that the revenue is greatest. 
To raise the duties higher than that amount and diminish 
the amount collected is to levy them for protection merely 
and not for revenue. The tariff of 1842, he declared, wa»s 
so framed that much the greatest burden that it imposed 
was thrown on labor and the poorer classes, while it pro- 
tected capital and exempted the rich from paying their 
just proportion of taxation. " While it protects the capital 
of the wealthy manufacturer and increases his wealth, it 



POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. ^g 

does not benefit the operatives and laborers in his employ- 
ment, whose wages have not been increased by it." 

Secretary Walker's report will always deserve to be read 
along with Hamilton's report on manufactures. The 
Walker tariff, as the Act of July 30, 1846, is called, sub- 
stituted ad valorem for specific rates, and classed the arti- 
cles in eight different schedules indicated by the letters 
A, B, C, D, and so on. The articles in Schedule A paid 
100 per cent. They included brandy, spirits distilled from 
grain, and a few minor articles and luxuries. Those in 
Schedule B paid 40 per cent. They were few in number 
and generally unimportant, such as spices and the like. 
Schedule C, the 30 per cent, schedule, contained most of 
the articles around which the protective struggle raged, 
such as wool and woollens, manufactures of glass, paper, 
wood, iron and metals in general and manufactures of 
metals. Schedule D was 25 per cent., and included cot- 
tons, etc. The other Schedules were at 20, 15, 10 and 5 
per cent., and there was a considerable free list, which in- 
cluded tea and coffee. The principles which he adopted 
were stated as follows in his report : 

" 1st. That no more money should be collected than is 
necessary for the wants of the government economically 
administered. 2d. That no duty be imposed on any article 
above the least rate which will yield the largest revenue. 
3d. That below such rates discrimination may be made 
descending in the scale of duties, and, for imperative 
reasons, articles may be placed on the list of those free 
from all duty. 4th. That the maximum revenue duty 
should be imposed on luxuries. 5th. That all minimum 



150 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



ard all specific duties should be abolished and an ad va- 
lorem duty substituted in their place, care being taken to 
guard against fraudulent invoices and undervaluations and 
to assess the duty upon the actual market value. 6th. 
That the duties should be so imposed as to operate as 
equally as possible throughout the Union, discriminating 
neither for nor against any class." He declared that as a 
rule experience proved that a duty of 20 per cent, ad va- 
lorem would yield the largest revenue. 

This act was passed by a vote of 119 to 104 in the 
House, and by the casting vote of Vice-President Dallas 
in the Senate. The average rate of duty under it was 
2 S J A per cent, and its beneficial effects began to show 
themselves almost immediately. In his annual message 
of December 4, 1848, the President declared that it had 
met fully public expectation, and confirmed the opinion 
of the wisdom of a change in our revenue system. While 
it increased the revenue by the repeal of highly protective 
and prohibitory duties, it diminished the taxes upon the 
people. Nothing better proves the wisdom of the tariff 
of 1846, known as our revenue tariff, than the fact that 
it was followed by a period of greater and more solid 
general prosperity than any other in the history of our 
country; and when in 1857, eleven years afterwards, a re- 
dundant revenue called for a still further reduction, it was 
made by general consent, and for the first time, since pro- 
tection came into our tariff in 18 16, without any conflict 
of parties or political wrangling. The student of American 
tariffs will find much to interest him in the successive 



POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 



IU 



messages of President Polk and the reports of Secretary- 
Walker. 

It may here be mentioned that the sub-treasury so 
quickly abolished in Tyler's administration was re-estab- 
lished under Polk. 

With the approach of the nominating conventions of 
1848 the slavery question again began to show itself a 
troublesome one «for both parties. The anti-slavery Whigs 
of the North were not friendly to Mr. Clay, and the 
breach between the Northern and Southern Whigs was 
rapidly widening. Nor was there unity in the Democratic 
party. There were two factions in the State of New York, 
known respectively as the " Hunkers " and the " Barn- 
burners," the latter being an anti- slavery faction. When 
the Democratic Convention met at Baltimore, on May 22, 
1848, each of these two factions was present with a full 
delegation, and each stoutly demanded recognition as the 
regular party; and, after a long debate, the convention 
•decided to admit them both, each to cast one-half of the 
vote of New York. This was satisfactory to neither, and 
the Barn-burners withdrew from the convention, while the 
Hunkers refused to take part in its proceedings. 

Lewis Cass, of Michigan, was nominated for President 
on the fourth ballot, and General William O. Butler, of 
Kentucky, for Vice-President, on the second ballot. Mr. 
Cass was opposed to the Wilmot Proviso, as were also 
the other candidates for the nomination. 

The platform was that of 1844, with congratulatory reso- 
lutions on the result of the Mexican war. A resolution of 
sympathy to the National Convention of the Republic of 



!^ 2 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

France, then assembled, was adopted. They endorsed the 
administration of Polk, and rehearsed the benefits which it 
had conferred upon the people. 

The Whig Convention met at Philadelphia on the 7th 
of June. Zachary Taylor, of Louisiana, was nominated for 
President on the fourth ballot, the opposing candidates 
being Clay, Webster, General Scott. Millard Fillmore, of 
New York, was nominated for Vice-President on the second 
ballot. 

The convention adopted no platform, and, indeed, there 
was doubt up to its very meeting as to whether General 
Taylor was a Whig or a Democrat. 

The Barn-burners, who had withdrawn from the Demo- 
cratic Convention at Baltimore, met at Utica, N. Y., and 
nominated Van Buren for President, who accepted their 
nomination. Henry Dodge, a Senator from Wisconsin, was 
named for Vice-President, but he declined, and afterwards 
Charles Francis Adams, of Massachusetts, was joined with 
Van Buren as candidate for Vice-President. John P. Hale; 
of New Hampshire, who had been nominated by the 
Liberty or Abolition party, withdrew in favor of Van 
Buren. The platform of the Barn-burners, or, as they were 
now called, the Free Soil Democrats, referred almost en- 
tirely to the slavery question, and may be summed up 
in the words, " Free soil, free labor, free speech, and free 
men." 

Thirty States took part in this election. Taylor re- 
ceived 1,360,099 votes, Cass 1,220,544, and Van Buren 
291,263. Of the electoral votes Taylor received 163, car- 
rying the States of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, 



POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. x ^ 

Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisi- 
ana, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Cass carried the remain- 
ing States, and received 127 electoral votes. 

Van Buren received a larger vote in Massachusetts and 
New York than Cass, the vote in the latter State being, 
Taylor 218,603, Cass 114,318, Van Buren 120,510. 



CHAPTER XII. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENTS 
TAYLOR AND FILLMORE, 1849-185 3. 



GENERAL TAYLOR was a Louisiana planter and a 
large slaveholder. He had no experience as a 
civilian and no previous identification with either party. He 
was taken up by the Whigs solely because of his avail- 
ability. Webster, who was bitterly disappointed at his own 
failure to secure the nomination, pronounced that of Tay- 
lor as one unfit to be made, but did not refuse to sup- 
port him. 

The old questions on which parties had divided disap- 
peared. The National Bank was dead. The tariff contro- 
versies seemed settled by the act of 1846. A succession 
of Presidential vetoes, together with the rise of our rail- 
road system, had settled the question of internal improve- 
ments adversely. The sub-treasury kept up the divorce 
between bank and State. The proposition for distribution 
of the proceeds of the sale of public lands was not agi- 
tated. But for the slavery question there might almost 
have been another "era of good feeling." The growing 
alienation of the two sections was increased when Califor- 
nia applied for admission as a free State at the meeting of 

the first Congress under this administration. Mr. Clay, 
(154) 




V" ^ 






THOMAS H. BENTON. 



TAYLOR AND FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATION. j^ 

who had been chiefly instrumental in securing the passage 
of the Missouri Compromise in 1820, who had brought 
forward the compromise of 1833 on tne tariff, once again, 
as the closing act of a great and patriotic life, undertook 
to adjust the slavery agitation by a permanent and just 
compromise. His propositions were at first included in a 
single bill, and then divided into separate bills. The prin- 
cipal points were the abolition of the slave trade, but no 
interference with slavery in the District of Columbia ; the 
payment of $10,000,000 to Texas for abandoning her claim 
to New Mexico; the admission of California with the con- 
stitution she had framed forbidding slavery; the organiza- 
tion of New Mexico and Utah with a prohibition of 
the passage of any laws in respect to African slavery, and 
a more effective and stringent fugitive slave law. The 
moderate men in both parties supported these measures, 
although the individual votes changed with the respective 
bills. Mr. Fillmore, who had become President in July, 
1850, by the sudden death of General Taylor, promptly 
approved them as they were successively presented to him, 
and there was a general breathing spell and a widely ex- 
tended belief that the slavery agitation was ended. The 
Democratic party acquiesced in these compromise measures 
and recovered its popularity in the country, as was shown 
by the Congressional elections. The excellent prospect of 
success brought forth quite an army of candidates for the 
nomination. The National Convention was held in Balti- 
more June 1, 1852. General Cass was the leading candi- 
date, with James Buchanan and Stephen A. Douglas as 
his chief competitors. On the forty-ninth ballot Franklin 



156 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



Pierce, of New Hampshire, who had not been v.oted for 
until the thirty-fifth ballot, and had reached only fifty-five 
votes on the forty-eighth, was nominated by a stampede, 
which gave him 282 out of 288 votes cast. Wm. R. 
King, of Alabama, was nominated for Vice-President on 
the second ballot. The platform was the same as in the 
previous campaigns, with the addition of resolutions en- 
dorsing the compromise measures and pledging the party 
to resist all attempts in Congress and out of it to renew 
the agitation of the slavery question; to faithfully abide 
by and uphold the principles laid down in the Kentucky 
and Virginia resolutions of 1792 and 1798 and in the re- 
port of Mr. Madison to the Virginia Legislature in 1799, 
which principles it " adopts as constituting one of the 
main foundations of its political creed and is resolved to 
carry them out in their obvious meaning and import." 

Other resolutions referred to the happy close of the 
war with Mexico and to the duty of the Democracy of 
this country, as the party of the people, to uphold and 
maintain the right of every State, and thereby the Union 
of the States, and to sustain and advance among them 
constitutional liberty by continuing to resist all monopolies 
and exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the 
expense of the many. 

The Whig Convention also met in Baltimore, June 16. 
Fillmore and Scott were the leading candidates, receiving 
for forty-seven ballots about 130 votes each, Mr. Webster 
about 30. General Scott was nominated on the fifty-third 
ballot. Wm. A. Graham, of North Carolina, was nomin- 
ated for Vice-President on the second ballot. Thus, for the 



TAYLOR AND FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATION. 



157 



third time, the Whig party had turned from its statesmen 
and leaders, from the men whose names give it dignity in 
history and are identified with its policies, to take up a 
military man, whose opinions on public matters were un- 
known. Once only in its history, in 1844, did it venture 
to nominate a genuine Whig statesman on a genuine 
Whig platform. In every other campaign it went before 
the people either without a platform of principles or with- 
out a candidate of known views. In 1852 it adopted a 
lengthy series of resolutions, declaring in favor of the 
compromise laws of 1850 as a "settlement in principle and 
substance " of the dangerous and exciting questions, which 
they embrace. 

The Free Soil Democrats put forward John P. Hale, of 
New Hampshire, and George W. Julian, of Indiana. 

They declared slavery sectional and freedom national, 
and condemned the fugitive slave act of 1850 and the 
compromise measures generally. General Scott was not a 
strong candidate, and many leading Whigs in the South 
refused to support him and became henceforward identified 
with the Democratic party. On the popular vote Pierce 
received 1,601,274, Scott 1,386,580 and Hale 155,825. The 
smallness of the last vote shows that the country generally 
was satisfied with the compromise measures of 1850. 
Despite his large vote, Scott secured the electors in but 
four States, Vermont, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Ken- 
tucky, in all 42. Pierce had 254. After this campaign 
the Whig party passed rapidly to disintegration. It was 
in many respects a superb political organization, rich in 
great names and marshalled by leaders who knew how to 



158 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



raise its enthusiasm to the highest pitch. It was seldom, 
however, able to unite on definite lines of policy, and on 
the issues now arising went rapidly to pieces; its Southern 
members became Democrats, its Northern wing dividing 
between that party and the new political organization 
which, to use a well-worn simile, sprang full armed from 
the country's growing agony. 




FRANKLIN PIERCE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
PIERCE, 1853-1857. 



THE administration of Franklin Pierce began under a 
delusive calm. In the Thirty-third Congress, which 
met on the 5 th day of December, 1853, the Democrats 
had fourteen clear majority in the Senate, and more than 
two-thirds of the members of the House. The President 
pledged himself to carry out the compromise of 1850, con- 
gratulated the country that the slavery question was settled, 
and declared that any attempt to revive the agitation would 
be unpatriotic. As long, however, as there were Territories 
to organize there could be no lasting adjustment of this 
burning question between the two sections, and the bill 
passed at the first session of Congress to organize the Ter- 
ritories of Nebraska and Kansas reopened the agitation with 
an intensity which it had not heretofore reached. This 
bill provided for the admission of these two Territories, 
with or without slavery, as their constitutions might pre- 
scribe, at the time of admission, and repealed the Missouri 
Compromise of 1850, by declaring it "inconsistent with 
the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery 
in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legisla- 
tion of 1850, commonly called The Compromise Measures, 

(161) 



1 62 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

it being the true intent and meaning of this act, not to 
legislate slavery into any State or Territory* nor to exclude 
it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free 
to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States." 

Both of these Territories, erected chiefly within the limits 
of the original Louisiana purchase, were north of the line 
°f 36° 30', and according to the Missouri Compromise 
slavery could not be established within their limits. The 
declaration, therefore, in the Kansas-Nebraska bill that this 
compromise was inoperative and void, being inconsistent 
with the principle of the non-intervention with slavery in 
the States and Territories by Congress as recognized by the 
compromise measures of 1850, was very repugnant to the 
Free Soil Democrats and Anti-slavery Whigs of the North. 
The latter generally dropped the name of Whigs and called 
themselves Anti-Nebraska men. But we must pause here 
to chronicle the appearance of a new party, which spread 
so rapidly in both sections of the country that its leaders 
fondly supposed it was to have a more permanent place in 
American politics than the spasmodic and vigorous life 
which it manifested. 

We have seen that the old Federalist party was opposed 
to the speedy naturalization of foreigners, and that the alien 
laws extended the period preliminary to citizenship from 
five to fourteen years. Different organizations had arisen, 
from time to time, calling themselves '* Native American " 
parties, but had made no figure in political contests. The 
party which appeared in 1852 called itself American, but 



PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 



l6 3 



being an oath-bound and secret organization, with subordi- 
nate, State and national councils, and a system of initiation 
through successive degrees, was by its opponents given the 
name of Know-Nothings, because of the refusal or inability 
of its members to give information as to its secrets. Its 
rallying cry was, " Americans only shall govern America." 
It advocated a change in the naturalization laws making a 
continued residence of twenty-one years indispensable to 
citizenship, the election of native-born Americans for all 
federal and municipal offices or government employment, 
and -opposed to what it declared to be the "aggressive 
policy and corrupting tendencies of the Roman Catholic 
Church in our country." 

When the Thirty-fourth Congress, elected in the middle 
of Pierce's administration, met it was found that the Demo- 
crats were in the minority in the House, and more than 
two months were consumed in the effort to elect a speaker, 
when Mr. N. P. Banks, of Massachusetts, an. Anti-Ne- 
braska man, was chosen. The Anti-Nebraska men, how- 
ever, in the meantime had adopted the name Republican, 
first formally agreed upon, it is said, at a meeting of thirty 
members of Congress on the day after the passage of the 
Kansas-Nebraska bill, May 23, 1854, although it had been 
suggested in other quarters before. The closing of Pierce's 
administration was vexed by the contest between the free 
and slave State men for the control of Kansas ; a contest 
which led to a state of war in that Territory, and which 
was bequeathed as its most troublesome question to the 
next administration. Many new and unknown elements 
appeared as the next Presidential contest drew near. 



I62J. THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

The Know-Nothing Convention met in Philadelphia Feb- 
ruary 22, 1856, adopted a platform setting forth the prin- 
ciples we have already summarized, and demanding the 
repeal of the Missouri Compromise. This convention had 
delegates from all the States except Maine, Vermont, South 
Carolina and Georgia, but fell into an angry wrangle over 
a motion that no candidates who were not in favor of inter- 
dicting slavery in the territory north of the Missouri Com- 
promise line should be nominated. When this motion was 
laid upon the table about one-fourth of the delegates, com- 
ing from the New England and other Northern States, 
withdrew. The convention nominated Millard Fillmore for 
President and Andrew Donelson, of Tennessee, for Vice- 
President. 

The shattered fragments of the old Whig party met in 
Baltimore on the 17th of September, with representatives 
from twenty-six of the thirty-one States, and declared their 
reverence. for the Constitution and unalterable attachment 
to the Union, their opposition to geographical parties, and 
endorsed Mr. Fillmore, "without adopting or referring to 
the peculiar doctrines of the party which made him its can- 
didate." 

The Republican party met, in its first convention, at 
Philadelphia on the 17th of June, with representatives from 
all the Northern States and from Delaware, Maryland, and 
Kentucky. Its platform opposed the repeal of the Mis- 
souri Compromise, the extension of slavery into free terri- 
tory, favored the admission of Kansas as a free State, de- 
clared that the Constitution conferred upon Congress 
sovereign power over the Territories of the United States, 



PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION; ' 163 

and that in the exercise of that power it was both the 
right and duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories 
those twin relics of barbarism — polygamy and slavery. 
Other resolutions declared in favor of governmental aid for 
the immediate construction of a railroad to the Pacific 
ocean, and in favor of an appropriation for the improve- 
ment of rivers and harbors of a national character. The 
nominees of this convention were John C. Fremont for 
President, and William L. Dayton for Vice-President. 

It should be stated here that the delegates who had 
withdrawn from the Know-Nothing Convention had 
previously nominated Fremont as their candidate for Presi- 
dent, and this had much effect in securing his nomination 
by the Republican Convention. 

At the Democratic Convention, which met at Cincinnati, 
on the 7th of June, all the States were fully represented, 
and two of them, New York and Missouri, had contesting, 
delegations. On the first ballot the vote stood, James, 
Buchanan 135, Franklin Pierce 122, Stephen A. Douglas 
33, and Lewis Cass 5. Pierce was largely supported by 
the Southern Democrats and Buchanan by the Northern 
Democrats. The votes of the former gradually passed' over 
to Douglas, and on the 16th ballot he had reached 121 
votes to 168 for Buchanan. Mr. Buchanan was unani- 
mously nominated on the 17th ballot. There were many can- 
didates for the Vice-Presidency, but John C. Breckinridge, 
of Kentucky, received the unanimous nomination of the 
convention on the 2d ballot. The platform adopted reaf- 
firmed the resolutions of 1840 and 1844, denounced the 

organization of a party with secret and religious tests, de- 
11 



J66 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

clared in favor of the strict and faithful execution of the 
compromise measures. of 1850, and denounced all attempts 
of renewing in Congress or out of it the agitation of the 
slavery question ; recognized and adopted the principles con- 
tained in the organic laws organizing the Territories of 
Kansas and Nebraska as the only sound and safe solution 
of the slavery question ; non-interference of Congress with 
slavery in the States or in the District of Columbia. 

In the Southern States, where the Republican party had 
no existence, the contest was between Buchanan and Fill- 
more. The latter, however, received the vote of the State 
of Maryland only. Fremont carried all the Northern 
States, except Indiana, Illinois, California, New Jersey and 
Pennsylvania, which voted for Buchanan, who also carried 
all the Southern States except Maryland. On the popular 
vote Buchanan received 1,838,169, Fremont 1,341,264, Fill- 
more 874,534 votes. . Of the electoral vote Buchanan re- 
ceived 174, Fremont 114 and Fillmore 8. 

The large vote given to Fremont disclosed the por- 
tentous fact that a party had arisen based on sectional lines, 
and that we had reached that' dangerous period in Ameri- 
can history to which Washington and other patriots had 
looked forward with so much apprehension. 




JAMES BUCHANAN. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
BUCHANAN, 1857-1861. 



THE administration of Mr. Buchanan fell upon evil 
times. The contest between the anti-slavery and pro- 
slavery men in Kansas broke out into a civil war in that 
Territory, and, together with the Dred Scott decision, 
made the slavery question the chief and almost the sole 
subject of division between parties. 

Dred Scott was a Missouri slave, who had been taken 
by his owner, an army surgeon, first into Illinois, where 
slavery was forbidden by the State constitution, and then 
into Upper Louisiana (now Minnesota), where slavery was 
forbidden by the Compromise of 1820, it being north of 
the line 36 30'. Scott was then brought back to Missouri 
and sold, and he entered suit in both the State and fed- 
eral courts for his freedom. The suit in the State court 
was suspended to await the result of that in the federal 
court. 

The latter court had jurisdiction, under the Constitution 

of the United States, only in suits between " citizens of 

different States," and the question raised by the pleadings 

was whether a negro of African descent, whose ancestors 

were of pure African blood, and brought into this country 

(169) 



IjQ THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

and sold as negro slaves, was a citizen of a State within 
the meaning of the Constitution. The court held that he 
was not, and consequently was not entitled to sue in the 
federal courts. It further went on to declare the Missouri 
Compromise Act, forbidding slavery in any Territory north 
of the parallel of 36 30', unconstitutional because the 
Constitution expressly recognized the right of property in 
slaves, and if the Constitution recognized the right of 
property of a master in a slave and made no distinction 
between that description of property and other property 
owned by a citizen, no tribunal acting under the authority 
of the United States, whether it be legislative, executive, 
or judicial, had a right to draw such a distinction or deny 
to it the provisions and guarantees which have been pro- 
vided for the protection of private property against the 
encroachments of the government. The effect of this de- 
cision was to declare slave property entitled to the same 
protection under the Constitution and laws in the Terri- 
tories as any other kind of property. 

From this decision Justices Curtis and McLean dis- 
sented. Against this doctrine the Republican party held 
that slavery had no legal status outside of the jurisdiction 
of the State in which it was established; that the normal 
condition of all the territory of the United States is that of 
freedom, and they denied the authority of Congress, of a 
Territorial Legislature, or of any individual to give legal 
existence to slavery in any Territoiy of the United States. 

The Democratic party was now divided into two w r ings. 
As a strict construction party it had no difficulty in unit- 
ing upon the proposition that was embodied in the Kan- 



BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



171 



sas-Nebraska Act — the non-interference of Congress with 
slavery in the Territories. 

The Dred Scott decision, however, introduced a line of 
cleavage. The administration, followed by the Southern 
Democrats and a minority at the North, accepted that de- 
cision, and maintained that slaves could be taken into a 
Territory and held there under the protection of the Con- 
stitution and federal laws until a State was formed and 
admitted into the Union with power to establish or forbid 
that institution. A large majority of the Northern Demo- 
crats, under the lead of Judge Stephen A. Douglas, of 
Illinois, held the doctrine of "Squatter Sovereignty;" that 
the people of a Territory, as soon as it was organized, 
could decide through their Legislature for or against 
slavery. The struggle over the admission of Kansas con- 
tinued through this administration. 

The administration favored the admission of Kansas 
with the Lecompton Constitution, which had been adopted 
by an apparent majority of six thousand votes and es- 
tablished slavery. The Senate passed a bill, March 23, 
1858, for that purpose, by a vote of 33 yeas to 25 nays. 
The nays consisted of 19 Republicans, 2 Americans, and 
4 Democrats ; to wit, Broderick, of California, Douglas, of 
Illinois, Pugh, of Ohio, and Stuart, of Michigan. The two 
Americans were John Bell, of Tennessee, and John J. 
Crittenden, of Kentucky. The House inserted a proviso 
in the Senate bill for a re-submission of the constitution 
to the vote of the people of Kansas. A committee of 
conference on the disagreement between the two Houses 
recommended a bill including the House amendment with 



172 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



propositions for land grants to the State for school and 
other purposes to be voted on at the same time. The 
conference report was adopted by both Houses and be- 
came a law, but Kansas rejected the constitution, and a 
later convention, which met at Wyandot, adopted a State 
constitution prohibiting slavery, which received a majority 
vote at the polls, and with which constitution the State 
was eventually admitted. 

The Democratic National Convention met at Charleston, 
S. C, April 23, i860, with all the States represented, and 
contesting delegations from New York and Illinois. In 
both cases the delegation favorable to Mr. Douglas was 
admitted to the convention. The convention was in ses- 
sion for many days and did not reach a vote on the 
platform until April 30, when it adopted the platform re- 
ported by the minority of the Committee on Resolutions, 
in which it reaffirmed " the platform of principles adopted 
at Cincinnati in 1856, believing that Democratic principles 
are unchangeable in their nature when applied to the 
same subject-matter," and added resolutions, reciting that, 
inasmuch as a difference of opinion existed in the party 
as to the nature and extent of the powers of territorial 
legislation, and as to the duties and powers of Congress 
under the Constitution over the institution of slavery in 
the Territories, the Democratic party would abide by the 
decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on 
all questions of constitutional law ; in favor of such con- 
stitutional government aid as would insure the construc- 
tion of a railroad to the Pacific ocean; in favor of the 
acquisition of Cuba, and in censure of all State legisla- 



BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. I yv 

tion to defeat the faithful execution of the fugitive slave 
law. On the adoption of this platform representatives from 
the Southern States, casting 45 out of the 303 votes of 
the convention, withdrew. Balloting for a candidate pro- 
ceeded for three days; Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, 
receiving about 150 votes on an average — 202 votes 
being necessary to a choice. The remaining votes were 
scattered among some seven or eight candidates — Hunter, 
of Virginia, and Guthrie, of Kentucky, receiving the largest 
number. On the 3d of May the convention adjourned to 
reassemble in Baltimore on the 18th of June, and recom- 
mend to the Democrats in the several States to fill the 
vacancies caused by the withdrawal of their delegates. 

The delegates who had withdrawn from the convention 
organized in a separate convention, adopted the report which 
the majority of the Committee on Resolutions had made, 
declaring that the government of a Territory organized by 
an act of Congress is provisional and temporary, and during 
its existence all citizens have an equal right to settle with 
their property in the Territory, and that it is the duty of the 
federal government to protect, when necessary, the rights 
of person and property in the Territories and wherever 
else its authority extends ; that the sovereignty of the State 
begins when the people of a Territory, having sufficient 
population, form a State constitution and it is consummated 
by admission into the Union. They also declared in favor 
of the acquisition of Cuba and the construction of a rail- 
road to the Pacific coast. This convention adjourned to 
meet at Richmond, Va., on the nth of June. 

The regular convention met at Baltimore on the 18th of 



174 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



June. After some delays and contests over the admission 
of delegates to fill the vacancies, the decisions being 
generally in favor of delegates pledged to support Doug- j 
las, a second withdrawal took place, consisting of most 
of the members from the Southern States, as well as 
some from the North, including Caleb Gushing, of Massa- 
chusetts, who had been President of the convention. Mr. 
Douglas was nominated for President; receiving i8l}4 
out of the 195 votes of which the convention consisted. 
Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, was nominated for 
Vice-President but declined, and Herschel V. Johnson, of 
Georgia, was substituted in his place by the National 
Committee. On the 28th of June' those who had been 
refused admission to the Baltimore Convention, together 
with those who had withdrawn therefrom, and some who 
had seceded from the Charleston Convention, nominated, 
for President, John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, and 
for Vice-President, Joseph Lane, of Oregon. 

Another convention met at Baltimore on the 9th of 
June, composed of the remnants of the Know-Nothing 
party in the South, and such Whigs in the North as 
were not identified with the Democratic or Republican 
parties. It called itself the Constitutional Union party, 
and adopted as its platform simply " the Constitution of 
the United States, the union of the States, and the en- 
forcement of the laws." Its nominees were John Bell, of 
Tennessee, for President, and Edward Everett, of Massa- 
chusetts, for Vice-President. 

The Republican party met at Chicago, on the 16th 
of May, and declared in favor of the right of each State 



BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. X y$ 

to order and control its own domestic institutions accord- 
ing to its own judgment; against the dogma that the 
Constitution, of its own force, carried and protected 
slavery in the Territories ; in favor of the admission of 
Kansas under her free constitution; of a protective tariff; 
a homestead law; appropriations for river and harbor 
improvements, and a Pacific railroad. The leading candi- 
date before the convention was William H. Seward, of 
New York. On the third ballot Abraham Lincoln, of 
Illinois, was nominated for President, and Hannibal Ham- 
lin, of Maine, for Vice-President. 

The result of the election gave Abraham Lincoln 1,856,- 
452 votes, Stephen A. Douglas 1,375,157 votes, Breckin- 
ridge 847,953 votes, Bell 590,631 votes. Of the electoral 
vote, Lincoln received the votes of all the Northern States 
except New Jersey, four of whose votes were given to 
him, making in all 180 votes. Douglas received 12 votes, 
3 from New Jersey and the /ote of Missouri. Breckin- 
ridge 73, namely, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas. The votes of Virginia, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee were given to Bell, 39 in all. 



CHAPTER XV. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
LINCOLN, 1861-1865. 



THE election of Abraham Lincoln made the first serious 
break in the control of the federal government by the 
Democratic party since the inauguration of Mr. Jefferson; 
the election of Harrison by the Whigs in 1840 having 
proved a barren victory by reason of his early death, and 
the administration of Taylor and Fillmore having been 
almost immediately followed by the dissolution of the 
Whig party. The closing days of Mr. Buchanan's admin- 
istration were devoted to an earnest effort on the part of 
some of the most patriotic men of the country to avert 
the dissolution of the Union; among which were the 
compromise measures proposed by Mr. Crittenden, of Ken- 
tucky, virtually restoring the line of the Missouri Compro- 
mise as a permanent division between the free and the 
slave territory of the country. Although earnestly sup- 
ported by the President, Mr. Crittenden's propositions were 
defeated in the Senate. A Peace Convention also assem- 
bled in Washington on the invitation of the State of Vir- 
ginia, but its proceedings were fruitless, and with the se- 
cession of the Southern States and the withdrawal of 

their representatives from both Houses of Congress, the 
(176) 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



1/9 



war began. It is not the purpose of this sketch to give 
the history of that unhappy struggle. 

The close of Mr. Buchanan's administration left the Re- 
publicans in control of both branches of Congress, and 
the tariff of 1846, as reduced in 1857, was superseded by 
the Act of March 2, 1861, known as the Morrill tariff, 
framed on the protective theory, with increase of rates and 
the substitution of specific for ad valorem duties. The 
Republican party was in its origin a sectional party, and 
such it has chosen to remain throughout its entire his- 
tory. It came into power upon the doctrine of restrict- 
ing slavery to the States in which it then existed, and 
excluding it from the Territories belonging to the Union. 
But it was largely in its composition and controlling ele- 
ments a loose construction party, and its accession to 
power being followed immediately by the secession of the 
Southern States and four years of civil war, in which 
every power of the national government was strained to 
restore its authority over the seceded States and compel 
their return to the Union, it naturally grew more accus- 
tomed to absolute power and military rule than to the 
careful observance of the Constitution, of the rights of 
the States, or the great safeguards of personal liberty. 
Military necessity was often appealed to as temporarily 
superseding the Constitution and the laws. The Demo- 
cratic party, trained for more than sixty years in the 
school of strict construction ; of equal rights ; of the su- 
premacy of the civil over the military power; of reverence 
for the Constitution and for those fundamental principles 
of liberty out of which free government springs, and by 



j g THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

whose observance alone free government can be main- 
tained and perpetuated, challenged these violations of the 
great rights which government was ordained to secure — 
the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus ; the denial 
of the right of trial by jury; the trial of citizens by mil- 
itary tribunals in time of peace or in States where civil 
courts were open; the interference with liberty of the 
press, with the right of popular assemblage and the like. Its 
general position on these questions was vindicated by the 
decision of the United States Supreme Court in the celebrated 
case of Lambdin Milligan, who was arrested by order of the 
general commanding the military district of Indiana; tried 
by a military commission, and sentenced to be hung. Mil- 
ligan petitioned the Circuit Court of the United States for 
the district of Indiana to be discharged, on the ground 
that the military commission had no jurisdiction to try him 
and that the right of trial by jury was guaranteed to him 
by the Constitution. In deciding this case the court de- 
clared, " That no graver question was ever considered by 
this court, or one that more nearly concerns the rights of 
the whole peeple ; for it is the birthright of every citizen, 
when charged with crime, to be tried and punished ac- 
cording to law," and used these memorable words: "The 
Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and 
people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the 
shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times and 
under all circumstances." The financial legislation of the 
Republican party establishing a new system of national 
banks was also generally opposed by the Democrats. The 
withdrawal of Southern representatives left the Democrats 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. I g l 

in a small minority in both Houses of Congress, but they 
increased their representation in the House by the elections 
of 1863. There was a section of the Republican party 
which did not believe Mr. Lincoln was in favor of meas- 
ures sufficiently vigorous for the crisis, and a convention 
of Radical Republicans put forward a ticket composed 
of John C. Fremont, for President, and John Cochrane, 
of New York, for Vice-President. Its platform called for 
a constitutional amendment prohibiting the re-establish- 
ment of slavery " destroyed by the rebellion ; " the enforce- 
ment of the Monroe doctrine ; the maintenance of the one 
term policy for the President; the reconstruction of the 
rebellious States by the people in Congress, and not by 
the executive; and the confiscation of the lands of the 
rebels and their distribution among soldiers and settlers. 
These candidates, however, withdrew before the election. 

The call for the Republican National Convention in- 
cluded all who desired the unconditional maintenance of 
the Union, and the first resolution of its platform 
recited, " that, laying aside all differences of political 
opinion, we pledge ourselves as Union men, etc." Mr. 
Lincoln was renominated and Andrew Johnson, of Tennes- 
see, was nominated for Vice-President. This was rather an 
effort, according to the language of the resolution, to nomi- 
nate a Union ticket than a strictly Republican one. John- 
son was a born Democrat, trained too long in the school 
of his party to be converted to other doctrines of govern- 
ment than those it had always championed ; and while 
the intensity of his love for the Union and of his hatred of 
secession led him to approve all measures that promised to 



!8 2 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

preserve the one and destroy the other, the course of events 
soon threw him into direct and angry collision with the 
party which now nominated him. 

The Democratic National Convention met in Chicago, 
August 20, 1864. Horatio Seymour was its permanent 
President and James Guthrie, of Kentucky, chairman of 
the committee on resolutions. Its platform pledged its 
unswerving fidelity to the Union, declaring that, after four 
years' failure to restore the Union by war, during which, 
under the pretense of military necessity, of war power, the 
Constitution, public liberty, and private rights had been 
stricken down ; it demanded that immediate efforts be 
made to end hostilities with a view of the ultimate conven- 
tion of States, or other public means for restoring the 
Union ; it denounced the direct interference of military au- 
thority in recent elections ; declared the object of the party 
to be the preservation of the Union and of the rights of 
the States unimpaired, and censured the administration's 
usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers, many 
of which it specified. It nominated General George B. 
McClellan, for President, and George H. Pendleton, of 
Ohio, for Vice-President. 

Twenty-five States took part in this election. Lincoln 
received 2,213,665 votes; McClellan 1,802,237. New 
Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky gave their electoral votes 
to him — twenty-one in all. Two hundred and twelve were 
given to Lincoln. 

Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln the* surrender 
of the Southern armies and the return of peace raised the 
great questions of the reconstruction of the Southern 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 1 83 

States. Unfortunately, before he could do more than give 
utterance to a few of those generous sentiments which were 
a part of his nature, and which indicated his earnest desire 
to heal, as quickly as possible, the wounds of the strife, 
Abraham Lincoln was laid low by the bullet of an assassin 
and Andrew Johnson became President of the United 
States. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT JOHNSON, 
April 15, 1865 — March 3, 1869. 



UPON Andrew Johnson devolved the duty of restoring 
the operation of the federal laws over the late Con- 
federate States and of bringing them again into constitu- 
tional relations with the Union. This was a grave and dif- 
ficult duty, but one which, under ordinary circumstances, 
would not have required more than firmness and discretion, 
tempered by patience and magnanimity. There were, how- 
ever, several conditious, partly unavoidable and partly acci- 
dental, that threw around the effort increasing complica- 
tions and finally involved it in partisan politics, to the det- 
riment of the whole country and the long postponement 
of real pacification. 

The murder of President Lincoln, in which happily it 
was soon made clear that the South was not implicated, 
very naturally intensified, for the time, the animosity of the 
North and begot a call for severe measures. This, how- 
ever, was a passing feeling that soon spent itself. The 
emancipation of the slaves was not the object of the war; 
it was, time and again, disavowed in the most authoritative 

manner ; yet it had been effected by the war, and the- ques- 
(184) 



JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. jg- 

tion of the rights and status, civil and political, of the freed- 
men was the real difficulty in the situation. 

Andrew Johnson, moreover, as already stated, had been 
taken up for Vice-President in the late Republican Con- 
vention, not as a Republican, but as a Union man and an 
intense Southern loyalist. When the assassination of Mr. 
Lincoln made him President the Republican leaders re- 
garded him as the mere trustee of a power which belonged 
to them, and whose exercise they had a right to control 
and direct. This soon developed the fact that while Mr. 
Johnson, reared as a Southern Democrat, had never been 
in sympathy with, or even free from social prejudice against, 
those whom he termed the aristocratic leaders of that party 
in the South, he was quite as far from agreement or sym- 
pathy with the leaders of the Republican party at the 
North, and this latter difference was the more radical be- 
cause it had its root in fundamentally different ideas of the 
structure and powers of the federal government. Johnson 
took the oath of office April 15, 1865. On the 21st of April, 
speaking to a delegation from Indiana presented to him by 
Governor Morton, he clearly foreshadowed his ideas of 
reconstruction, although his utterances were yet full of re- 
sentment against the South. After declaring that " treason 
must be made odious, traitors must be punished and im- 
poverished : " " their social power must be destroyed : " 
" every Union man and the government should be remuner- 
ated out of the pockets of those who have inflicted this 
great suffering upon the country," and explaining that his 
threats were directed against the leaders, not against the 

" laboring men misled and drawn into the rebellion by 
12 



!S6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

them ; " he finds in the Constitution " a great panacea " to 
" revitalize and put upon their feet again the States whose 
machinery had been overthrown by the rebellion. Their 
life-breath, he held, had been only suspended and it was 
now a high constitutional obligation to secure each of these 
States in the possession and enjoyment of a republican form 
of government. 

His policy then outlined was punishment and impoverish- 
ment for the individual leaders of the South, but full recog- 
nition of the existence and rights of the States, with their 
restoration to the Union as speedily as possible upon a 
constitutional equality with the States of the North, and 
the same right . of control over their domestic affairs, in- 
cluding the question of suffrage. 

This policy he at once set himself to carry out by ap- 
pointing provisional governors for the several Southern 
States with directions to organize governments in' them as 
soon as possible. These governments were to be in the 
hands of those who were then loyal citizens and, as a con- 
dition of their recognition by the executive, he insisted 
on the repudiation of all debts incurred in aid of the rebel- 
lion, and the ratification of the amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the United States abolishing slavery. 

"This amendment being adopted it would remain for the 
States whose powers have so long been in abeyance to re- 
sume their places in the two branches of the national legis- 
lature and thereby complete the restoration." 

Conventions were held in most of the Southern States. 
State governments were duly organized ; State officers 
elected; their Legislatures ratified the Thirteenth Amend- 



JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. ' 1 87 

ment, and Senators and Representatives in Congress were 
duly chosen. Such, generally, was the condition of recon- 
struction when Congress met December 4, 1865, more 
than three-fourths of each House being Republican. It 
was soon made apparent that the President's policy was not 
acceptable to the leaders of that party, and that in their 
plan of reconstruction they were not hampered by the strict 
construction theories which had so quickly solved the prob- 
lem for Andrew Johnson, but meant to keep the Southern 
States under military rule until they could devise a system 
of reconstruction that would look to their party supremacy 
in the South not less than to the supremacy of the laws 
and of the authority of the United States. The breach be- 
tween the President and the party rapidly widened, and soon 
threw him once again upon his original party, the Demo- 
crats, who, as a rule, supported him in the long list of 
vetoes by which he vainly attempted to thwart the recon- 
struction legislation of the Republican party. Before re- 
citing the main facts of this struggle between the President 
and . Congress it is due to history, and it is due to the 
Democratic party of the North, which opposed so nobly 
and magnanimously all proscriptive and degrading legisla- 
tion against the Southern people, to quote a few extracts 
from the report of General Grant, then Lieutenant-General 
of the Armies of the United States, made December 18, 
1865, giving the result of his observations in his recent 
tour among the Southern States. 

" I am satisfied that the mass of the thinking men of the 
South accept the present situation of affairs in good faith. The 
questions which have heretofore divided the sentiments of the 



iSS THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

people of the two sections, slavery and States' rights, or the 
right of a State to secede from the Union, they regard as hav- 
ing been settled forever by the highest tribunal, arms, that 
man can resort to." 

After saying that all citizens at the South agreed that 
it was not yet practicable to withdraw the military, he 
adds: 

" There is such universal acquiescence in the authority of 
the General Government throughout the portion of the coun- 
try visited by me, that the mere presence of a military force, 
without regard to numbers, is sufficient to maintain order. 

" My observations lead me to the conclusion that the citizens 
of the Southern States are anxious to return to self-govern- 
ment within the Union as soon as possible ; that while recon- 
structing they want and require protection from the Govern- 
ment; that they are in earnest in wishing to do what is re- 
quired by the Government not humiliating to them as citizens, 
and that if such a course was pointed out they would pursue 
it in good faith. It is to be regretted that there cannot be a 
greater commingling at this time between the citizens of the 
two sections, and particularly of those entrusted with the law- 
making power." 

Such was the promising state of affairs in the South, as 
early as December, 1865, when "those entrusted with the 
law-making power " deliberately set themselves to the work 
of undoing it, of postponing for many years the reconcilia- 
tion of the two sections; of embroiling the^two races; of 
preparing the way for that era of carpet-bag government 
and military rule at the South which will ever condemn at 
the bar of history — that bar where the voice of magnanimity 
is always heard and always honored — the reconstruction 
policy of the Republican party, and the spirit of sectional- 
ism and of intolerant partisanship by which it was dictated. 



. JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. ^ 

The President's veto of the first Freedmen's Bureau Bill, 
February 19, 1866, began the long and embittered contest 
between the Executive and Congress. The grounds of this 
veto were that the bill proposed to establish military- 
authority over those parts of the United States containing 
refugees and freedmen, and to invest the agents of the 
Bureau with the power to try and punish for offences 
against the rights of the freedmen. These trials were to 
be without jury or any fixed rules of law or evidence, and 
to the President seemed plainly in conflict with those pro- 
visions of the Constitution which guarantee the accused in 
all criminal prosecutions the right to public trial by an im- 
partial jury, and, in any capital or otherwise infamous 
offence, a prior indictment or presentment by a grand jury. 
He denied that the bill was justifiable as a war measure 
because the war was over, and he disapproved of the pro- 
posed system of indiscriminate relief and the distribution 
of lands (" forty acres ") to the freedmen as a hindrance 
to their attaining a self-sustaining condition. He urged as 
a grave objection to the law that the eleven States to be 
most affected by it were not represented in either branch 
of Congress at the consideration or passage of the bill, 
although some of them were attending Congress, by loyal 
representatives, soliciting the allowance of the constitutional 
right of representation. The bill had passed both Houses 
by a party vote. The vote in the Senate on passing it 
over the veto was 30 yeas to 19 nays; not a two-thirds 
vote, and among the nays were found eight Republican 
Senators. On the day following Mr. Stevens, of Pennsyl- 
vania, from the Committee on Reconstruction, reported a 



I9 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



resolution which passed the House 109 to 40, "that no 
Senator or Representative should be admitted into either 
branch of Congress from the eleven States declared in 
insurrection until Congress should declare such State en- 
titled to representation." The Senate concurred on March 
2d by a vote of 29 to 18. 

Next in order was the Civil Rights Bill, which was ve- 
toed March 27, 1866, and passed over the President's veto 
in both Houses. This bill was intended to give all the 
rights of citizenship to the freedmen, including the right 
to make contracts, to enforce them in the courts, to inherit 
property, and of like character. It took from the State 
courts all cognizance of crimes and offences against the 
act, and charged the officers of the Federal Courts and 
of the Freedmen's Bureau with the duty of enforcing it. 
This law was in conflict with the decision in the Dred 
Scott case, and botji Houses of Congress at that session 
proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 
which set aside that decision. This amendment was sub- 
sequently ratified and declared in force July 28, 1868. 
Meantime the position of the two parties on reconstruction 
was elaborately stated in majority and minority reports 
from the Joint Committee on Reconstruction ; the first 
presented by Senator Fessenden, of Maine, and the latter 
by Senator Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland. As early as 
December 17, 1866, a motion was made looking to the 
gathering of evidence to impeach the President, and Con- 
gress proceeded to enact successive measures to hamper 
and curtail the power of the Executive and to deprive the 
President of much of his constitutional authority. They 



JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 19 1 

repealed the law authorizing him to extend pardon, or am- 
nesty by proclamation; tried to take from him the com- 
mand of the army; and finally reversed what had been 
the practice and theory since the first Congress, by the 
enactment of the Tenure of Office law, intended to put 
limits and prohibitions on the power of the President to 
remove from office. The President resisted these efforts 
of Congress to encroach upon his constitutional preroga- 
tives, and his removal of Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of 
War, in defiance of this law, led to his impeachment by 
resolutions of the House, adopted February 24, 1868. 
There were in all eleven articles of impeachment pre- 
ferred by the House, most of which related to the viola- 
tion of the Tenure of Office law and the removal of Stan- 
ton; also to certain utterances of the President in public 
speeches, in which it was charged that he had brought 
the high office of President of the United States into con- 
tempt, ridicule and disgrace. The managers of the party 
in the House were, Messrs. John A. Bingham, .Geo. S. 
Boutwell, James F. Wilson, Benjamin F. Butler, John A. 
Logan, Thaddeus Stevens. The President was represented 
by Henry Stanbery, Benjamin R. Curtis, Thomas A. R. 
Nelson, William M. Evarts and W. S. Groesbeck. When 
a vote was finally reached it was taken upon three articles 
only, resulting in each case in 35 "guilty," to 19 "not 
guilty ; " the " not guilty " votes were made up of the 
Democratic members of the Senate, with Senators Fessen- 
den, Fowler, Grimes, Henderson, Trumbull and Van Win- 
kle. As the two-thirds vote necessary to convict could not 
be obtained, no further proceedings were had, and the 



192 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



court adjourned sine die. The reconstruction policy finally 
adopted by the Republican party was contained in the act 
passed March 2, 1867, and supplemental acts at various 
times thereafter. It divided the ten States of the South — 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, 
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas — into 
five military districts, each under the command of a Briga- 
dier-General, with authority to enforce the laws and to 
punish crimes, and for the latter purpose to organize if 
necessary military commissions. This military rule was to 
continue until the several States, through conventions called 
by a vote of the people without discrimination as to race 
or color, should adopt constitutions bestowing the elective 
franchise, likewise without such discrimination, and until 
the legislatures organized under these State governments 
should ratify the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitu- 
tion. These conditions being complied with, Congress 
would admit the States into the Union. As Johnson's ad- 
ministration drew to a close, both parties prepared for the 
struggle at the polls. Both parties looked to General 
Grant as their candidate. He was known to have been a 
Democrat and nothing had yet occurred to indicate that he 
had dissolved his connection with that party, but it soon 
appeared that he preferred the Republican to the Demo- 
cratic nomination, and, in their National Convention which 
met on the 20th of May, 1868, at Chicago, he was unani- 
mously nominated for President, and Schuyler Colfax, of 
Indiana, received the nomination for Vice-President on the 
fifth ballot. Its platform declared, among other things, that 
"it is due to the labor of the nation that taxation should 



JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. I93 

be reduced as rapidly as the national faith will permit." 
The Democratic Convention met at Tammany Hall, New 
York city, July 4th. The most prominent candidate was 
George H. Pendleton, of Ohio, who had been the nominee 
for Vice-President on the ticket with McClellan at the last 
previous election. After twenty-one ballots, with General 
Hancock and Mr. Hendricks as his chief competitors, a 
break was made for Horatio Seymour, of New York, who 
was the president of the convention, and, against his 
earnest protest, he was unanimously and enthusiastically 
nominated. General Francis P. Blair, Jr., of Missouri, was 
nominated for Vice-President. The platform declared in 
favor of amnesty for all past political offences and for the 
regulation of the elective franchise in the States by their 
citizens ; all obligations of the government not expressly 
stating on their face, or in the law which authorized their 
issue, that they should be paid in coin to be paid in the 
lawful money of the United States ; equal taxation of 
every species of property according to its real value, in- 
cluding government bonds and other public securities; 
a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports and such 
equal taxation under the internal revenue laws as will 
afford incidental protection to domestic manufactures and 
as will, without impairing the revenue, impose the least 
burden upon, and best promote and encourage, the great 
industrial interests of the country. It arraigned the Re- 
publican party for its reconstruction legislation and its ex- 
travagance, and declared the reconstruction acts of Con- 
gress usurpations, unconstitutional, revolutionary and void. 
The Republican party held control of the Southern States, 



1 94 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

as far as they had been reconstructed and admitted into 
the Union, by negro suffrage and disfranchisement of the 
whites, and, although quite a fragment of the party broke 
away from General Grant because of the Southern policy 
of the Republicans, he received 3,012,833 votes and Sey- 
mour received 2,703,249. Of the electoral votes, Grant 
received 214 and Seymour 80, to wit: New York, New 
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Louisiana, . Kentucky and 
Oregon. Virginia, Mississippi and Texas did not vote and 
the electors of Florida were chosen by the legislature. 




SAMUEL J RANDALL. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
GRANT, 1 869-1 877. 



THE first act signed by General Grant after he became 
President was one declaring that all the notes and 
interest-bearing obligations of the United States, except 
when the law authorizing the issue had expressly pro- 
vided for the payment of the same in lawful money or 
other currency than gold or silver, should be paid in 
coin or its equivalent. In both Houses of Congress the 
Democrats opposed this measure as greatly increasing the 
burdens upon the people and unjustly adding to the 
wealth of the bondholders. When General Grant became 
President all the Southern States had been reconstructed 
and admitted to representation in Congress except Vir- 
ginia, Texas and Mississippi. In, these States there had 
been a delay in adopting their new constitutions because 
they contained disfranchising clauses. Congress authorized 
the President to submit to a separate vote *such portions 
of their constitutions as he pleased, and added the require- 
ment that they should ratify the Fifteenth Amendment 
as well as the Fourteenth. By January 30, 1871, all the 
States had been readmitted and reconstruction by Congress 
was complete. 

(i97) 



jgg THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

The limits assigned to this article will not permit us to 
dwell upon the history of the South under reconstruction. 
Suffice it to say that for the next five or six years there 
was a saturnalia of profligacy and corruption combined 
with a perfect travesty of free government in those States 
of the South where negro suffrage controlled and where 
the " carpet-bagger " who, with very rare exceptions was 
a political adventurer without character and bent only on 
plunder, directed the legislation of the States, and where 
the army of the United States was used by the President 
to prop up this worthless and corrupt pretence to State 
government. Bonds were issued as long as there was a 
market to negotiate them in, and in one single State 
(South Carolina) the debt increased $25,000,000 between 
1868 and 1872. The Southern policy of the administra- 
tion gradually alienated a large and most respectable 
section of the party, and in 1872 an effort was made to 
defeat General Grant for re-election, and a section of the 
Republican party calling themselves Liberal Republicans 
met and nominated Horace Greeley, of New York, and B. 
Gratz Brown, of Missouri, as candidates upon a plat- 
form arraigning the President and the Republican party 
in severe terms for their partisan control of the admin- 
istration ; for keeping alive the passions and resentments 
of the war to use to their own advantage, and for making 
the Civil Service the instrument of partisan tyranny, per- 
sonal ambition and an object of selfish greed. They de- 
manded a system of Federal taxation which shall not nec- 
essarily interfere with the rights of the people, and which 
shall provide the means necessary to conduct the ex- 



GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION. T gg 

penses of the government, and, recognizing that there are 
irreconcilable differences of opinion on the subject of pro- 
tection and free-trade, remitted the discussion of that subject 
to the people in their Congressional districts. The Demo- 
cratic Convention in 1872 met at Baltimore, July 9, and 
adopted the platform and nominated the candidates of 
the Liberal Republican party. A small convention of 
Democrats who would not support Greeley nominated 
Charles O'Conor, of New York, and John Quincy 
Adams, of Massachusetts. The Republican Convention 
met at Philadelphia, on June 5, and renominated General 
Grant, with Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, as candidate 
for Vice-President. All the States, for the first time in 
our history, chose electors by popular vote in 1872 ; Gen- 
eral Grant receiving 3,597,132, Greeley 2,834,125, and 
O'Conor 29,489. As declared by a joint session of the 
two Houses, General Grant received 286 electoral votes, 
and Horace Greeley having died before the votes were 
cast, the opposition vote was distributed as follows : 
Thomas A. Hendricks, 42; B. Gratz Brown, 18; Charles J. 
Jenkins, of Georgia, 2, and David Davis, of Illinois, 1. 
Some contest was made over the reception of the votes 
of several of the States, and the votes of Louisiana, 
where there were two sets of electors, and Arkansas were 
excluded, as also three votes in Georgia cast for Mr. 
Greeley. 

The second election of General Grant was apparently a 
greater triumph than his first election ; he had received a 
larger majority at the polls and a larger majority of the 
electoral vote. For the first and only time in its history, 



200 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the Democratic party declined to go into a Presidential 
contest with candidates of its own, and expressed its hope- 
lessness of securing a party victory by endorsing Horace 
Greeley — its lifelong enemy, with whom it had no bond of 
sympathy at present, except that of opposition to the con- 
tinued unfriendly legislation of the Republican party toward 
the South ; to its succession of force bills, and its use of 
the army to uphold the plundering carpet-bag governments, 
whose misrule and almost unbearable wrongs had naturally 
aroused some unlawful resistance, which was in turn greedily 
seized upon to justify military interference and to inflame 
the people of the North against the South. Although the 
contest at the polls in 1874 was a most disastrous one for 
the Democratic party, it gained many permanent accessions 
from the liberal Republicans, some of whom have since 
been honored in its ranks and influential in its counsels. 

The exposure of the Credit Mobilier scandal, upon an 
investigation made by a committee of Congress at the ses- 
sion after the Presidential election, whereby it was shown 
that shares in a corporation formed to construct the Union 
Pacific Railroad had been disposed of to members of both 
Houses, at nominal prices, in order to secure their friendly 
legislation for the railroad company; the growing prosti- 
tution of the Civil Service to partisan purposes, and the 
building up of a " boss system," whereby Senators and 
Representatives controlled the distribution of the federal 
patronage in their States and districts and in the depart- 
ments at Washington ; the growing dissatisfaction with the 
financial legislation of the Republican party, and the panic 
of 1 883 — all contributed to bring the Republican party 

73 



GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION. , 2 OI 

and the administration into discredit with the people. The 
elections of 1874, both State and Congressional, resulted in 
a great " tidal wave " of victory for the Democrats, and 
gave them control of the House of Representatives in the 
Forty-fourth Congress by a majority of 72 votes. When 
Congress met in December, 1875, there was a growing 
faith among the Democrats that they would be successful 
in the next Presidential campaign. Michael C. Kerr was 
made Speaker of the House, and the fruits of Democratic 
control in that branch of Congress were soon visible in the 
disappearance of the lobby, and in the substantial reduction 
of public expenditures. Both parties were preparing for 
the coming contest, but the discovery of an extensive 
" whiskey ring," organized, through collusion between dis- 
tillers and revenue officers, to defraud the government of 
revenue and to secure favorable legislation, ending in the 
trial of several persons, among them the President's private 
secretary, General O. E. Babcock, who, however, was ac- 
quitted ; the impeachment of the Secretary of War, General 
W. W. Belknap, for selling a post tradership at Fort Sill, 
and his escape from conviction by the Senate by his hasty 
resignation, and other scandals of like character, added to 
the growing confidence of the Democrats. 

The series of scandals in which the Republican party 
and its administration were involved may well be portrayed 
in the words of one of its leaders, uttered at the very time 
and on a momentous public occasion. These words of 
Senator Hoar are especially instructive because he is the 
same Senator who, in the recent debate on the Fisheries 
question in the Senate, July 10, 1888, blushed for Cleve- 



202 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

land's administration as one which robs American citizen- 
ship of all its glory, in contrast with that of Grant, and 
because in his article in the volume on the " Republican 
Party: Its History," etc., edited by Governor Long, this 
same Senator constitutes the Republican party of the virtue 
and intelligence of the country, the Democratic party of 
its crime and ignorance. No Democrat has ever been 
compelled to draw such a picture of a Democratic admin- 
istration. No enemy of that party has ever found in its 
history the materials for such a picture. 

SPEECH OF SENATOR HOAR IN BELKNAP IMPEACHMENT TRIAL, 

MAY 6, 1876. 

" My own public life has been a very brief and insigni- 
ficant one, extending little beyond the duration of a single 
term of Senatorial office. But in that brief period I have 
seen five judges of a high court of the United States driven 
from office by threats of impeachment for corruption or mal- 
administration. I have heard the taunt, from friendliest 
lips, that when the United States presented herself in the 
East to take part with the civilized world in generous com- 
petition in the arts of life, the only product of her institu- 
tions in which she surpassed all others beyond question was 
her corruption. ... I have seen the Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Military Affairs in the House, now a distinguished 
member of this court, rise in his place and demand the ex- 
pulsion of four of his associates for making sale of their 
official privilege of selecting the youths to be educated at 
our great military school. When the greatest railroad of 
the world, binding together the continent and uniting the 
two great seas which wash our shores, was finished, I have 
seen our national triumph and exultation turned to bitter- 
ness and shame by the unanimous reports of three com- 
mittees of Congress — two of the House and one here — that 
every step of that mighty enterprise had been taken in 
fraud. I have heard in highest places the shameless doc- 
trine avowed by men grown old in public office that the 



GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION. 



203 



true way by which power should be gained in the Repub- 
lic is to bribe the people with the offices created for their 
service, and the true end for which it should be used when 
gained is the promotion of selfish ambition and the grati- 
fication of personal revenge. / have heard that suspicion 
haunts tJie footsteps of the trusted compa?iions of the Presi- 
dent!" 

As the time for nominating candidates drew near, it be- 
came evident that some of General Grant's friends were bent 
upon breaking down the precedent established by the un- 
selfish patriotism of Washington and Jefferson by presenting 
his name for a third term ; and General Grant himself wrote 
an ambiguous letter which, to say the least of it, did not 
discourage the idea; but a resolution adopted by the House 
of Representatives, declaring any departure from the time- 
honored custom established by Washington and other Pres- 
idents by retiring after their second term unwise, unpatriotic 
and fraught with peril to free institutions, by the decisive 
vote of 234 to 18, ended the third term agitation for this 
campaign. Accordingly, quite a number of competitors 
sprang up for the Republican nomination, the chief candi- 
dates being Mr. Blaine, Mr. Morton, Mr. Bristow, and Mr. 
Conkling. As the balloting proceeded it was apparent 
that it was the field against Blaine ; and, on the seventh 
ballot, the field concentrated upon Governor Rutherford B. 
Hayes, of Ohio, who received 384 votes to 351 for Blaine 
and 21 for Bristow. The nomination of Mr. Hayes was 
made unanimous and William A. Wheeler, of New York, 
was nominated for Vice-President. 

In the Democratic Convention, which met at St. Louis, 
Governor Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, who had attracted 



204 THE NATI0NAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



the attention of the whole country by his vigorous, honest, 
and surpassingly able reform administration in that State, 
received more than a majority on the first ballot and the 
necessary two-thirds on the second, and was nominated amid 
great enthusiasm. Thomas A. Hendricks, who had con- 
tested for the first place with Mr. Tilden, was nominated 
for Vice-President. The platform adopted at St. Louis 
was a more distinctively Democratic platform than any 
upon which the party had planted itself since the nomina- 
tion of Mr. Buchanan, and marks an epoch in the rehabil- 
itation of the party. It demanded reform in every depart- 
ment of the public service, and in none more emphatically 
and clearly than in the sum and mode of federal taxation ; 
it denounced the existing tariff, levied upon nearly 4,000 
articles, as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality, and false 
pretense ; " it has impoverished many industries to subsi- 
dize a few; it has prohibited imports that might purchase 
the products of American labor ; it has degraded American 
commerce from the first to an inferior rank on the high 
seas ; it has kept down the sale of American manufactures 
at home and abroad, and depleted the returns of American 
agriculture, an industry followed by half of our people ; it 
costs the people five times more than it produces to the 
treasury; obstructs the processes of production and wastes 
the fruits of labor. . . . We demand that all custom- 
house legislation shall be only for revenue." 

The result at ;the polls gave Governor Tilden 4,300,590 
votes, Governor Hayes .4,036,298 votes, and Peter Cooper, 
who had been nominated by the Greenback party, 81,737 
votes. The Democrats had >tas carried the election at the 



GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION. 20$ 

polls and had an undoubted majority in the electoral college ; 
and now begins the darkest chapter in the political history 
of our own country, and, indeed, of popular government 
in the world. In three of the Southern States — Louisiana, 
South Carolina and Florida — the Republican party still had 
control of the election machinery, through State Returning 
Boards, and as soon as it was discovered that Governor 
Tilden needed one vote from these States to elect him a 
conspiracy was organized by the Republican leaders to 
use the Returning Boards of these States, composed en- 
tirely of their own creatures, and generally of men of the 
most abandoned character, to defraud the Tilden electors 
of their certificates and to bestow them upon the Hayes 
electors. The successive steps by which this great political 
crime was accomplished will not be here narrated. Suffice 
it to say that in both Louisiana and Florida, where an 
undoubted majority of votes was cast for the Tilden 
electors, they threw out upon one ' or another pretext 
enough to reverse the result and gave the certificates to 
the Hayes electors. During the time when the canvassing 
of votes in these States was in progress certain "visiting 
statesmen," as they were called, went to them, professedly 
to see that a fair count was made; but if any Republican 
statesman, with the sole exception of General Barlow, of 
New York, exercised his influence in favor of a fair count, 
and not in favor of the larceny of the votes of these 
States by his party, the fact has never been disclosed. In 
addition to the moral support of these statesmen, United 
States soldiers were at hand to protect the Boards while 
engaged in the perpetration of this flagitious crime. 



206 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

As there were disputed and double returns, when Con- 
gress met, the second session of the Forty-fourth Congress 
was chiefly devoted to this election contest, and a basis of 
agreement was finally settled upon in an act providing for 
a tribunal to be composed of five members of each House, 
selected by itself, and five justices of the Supreme Court 
of the United States, four of whom were designated in 
the act, with authority to choose the fifth, which constituted 
an Electoral Commission to decide, m all disputed cases, 
which was the true and lawful electoral vote of a State. 
This commission, as finally constituted, consisted, on the 
part of Congress, of Senators Edmunds, Morton, and Fre- 
linghuysen, Republicans, and Senators Thurman * and 
Bayard, Democrats, from the Senate ; Messrs. Henry B. 
Paine, Eppa Hunton, Josiah G. Abbott, Democrats, and 
James A. Garfield and George F. Hoar, Republicans, from 
the House. The Justices of the Supreme Court designated 
in the act were Nathan Clifford, William Strong, Samuel 
F. Miller and Stephen G. Field, who chose as the fifth 
member Joseph P. Bradley. Politically, Clifford and Field 
were Democrats, and Miller, Strong and Bradley were 
Republicans. The commission was thus composed of 
eight Republicans and seven Democrats, and by this party 
vote, in which the Judges of the Supreme Court showed 
themselves as thorough partisans as the members of either 
House, every disputed question was decided in favor of the 
Republicans, and all the doubtful votes were given to 

* Senator Thurman's health failed during the sitting of the Commission and 
his place was supplied by Senator Kernah. 



GRANT'S ADMINISTRATION. 



207 



Hayes, whereby he was declared to have had 185 votes to 
184 for Tilden. 

The Republican Senate and Democratic House not con- 
curring to set aside the determination of the Commission 
in any of the disputed cases, its judgment decided the con- 
test and Rutherford B. Hayes was inaugurated President 
of the United States on the 4th day of March, 1877, 
and the first great Democratic victory went for naught. 
Among the first acts of the new President was to reward, 
with lucrative offices," the creatures who had been con- 
cerned in the election frauds, and in the lottery of distri- 
bution the "visiting statesmen" were not overlooked, but 
were provided with foreign missions, cabinet appointments 
and other prominent positions. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
HAYES, 1877-1881. 



WHILE Mr. Hayes thus became President through the 
action of partisan Returning Boards in Louisiana 
and Florida, confirmed by the ruling of a partisan ma- 
jority in the Electoral Commission, the Democratic State 
officers in both of these States, and eventually also in 
South Carolina, assumed possession of the State govern- 
ments on the withdrawal of the federal troops, which took 
place soon after his inauguration, in accordance with an 
order previously given by President Grant and renewed by 
him. With the withdrawal of troops the era of Repub- 
lican reconstruction and carpet-bagism closed in the South, 
and the race troubles, which had led to violence in some 
sections and added to political bitterness over the whole 
country, vanished, and the whites and blacks, living to- 
gether in peaceful relations, laid the foundations of the 
prosperity of the new South, which has been so gratifying 
a feature of our political and industrial history in the past 
decade. 

Although the Democrats had been deprived of their 
victory in the Presidential contest they found themselves 

with a majority in both Houses of the Forty-sixth Con- 
(20S) 



HAYES' ADMINISTRATION. 211 

gress, and immediately organized an assault upon the laws 
yet remaining upon the statute-books that interfered with 
the freedom of elections. Aware that bills directly repeal- 
ing these laws would be vetoed by the President, they 
attempted, through " riders " on the appropriation bills, to 
compass their repeal. On the bill making appropriations 
for the support of the army they put a clause repealing 
the law allowing the army to be used to keep the peace 
at the polls ; to the legislative bill they added a provision 
repealing the authority to federal supervisors to count the 
votes at Congressional elections and to federal marshals to 
arrest at the polls; and to still another bill was attached 
a prohibition of payment to federal marshals "for services 
in connection with elections." All of which drew vetoes 
from the President, and the Appropriation Bills finally 
passed without them ; but, at a late session of the same 
Congress, a law was passed to prevent the use of the 
army to keep the peace at the polls, with the proviso that 
it should not be construed to prevent the constitutional 
use of the army to suppress domestic violence in a State. 

Hayes had shown some desire in the beginning of hi? 
administration to atone for any defect in his title by a 
conciliatory policy toward the South, and by some moder- 
ation of partisanship in the bestowal of offices, but as this 
had the effect of alienating his party from him he soon 
retraced his steps and regained the support of the Re- 
publicans by these partisan vetoes. The Greenback party 
attained its greatest strength during this administration — 
casting nearly 1,000,000 votes in the State elections of 
1878. Just prior to the resumption of specie payments it 



212 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

put General Jas. B. Weaver, of Iowa, in the field for 
President, with B. J. Chambers, of Texas, for Vice-Presi- 
dent, in 1880. 

A most determined effort of the stalwart wing of the 
Republican party to nominate General Grant for a third 
term was now made. The Republican Convention met at 
Chicago, June 5, 1880, and for thirty-six ballots Grant 
received a vote ranging from 304 to 313, generally rest- 
ing at 306 ; Conkling and Logan being his leading sup- 
porters. Blaine was the next highest candidate ; beginning 
with 284 votes, but never increasing that number. 

On the 36th ballot Jas. A. Garfield, of Ohio, who was 
a member of the convention, was nominated, receiving 
399 votes ; Chester A. Arthur, of New York, was selected 
for Vice-President as a concession to the friends of Gen- 
eral Grant — especially to Mr. Conkling. 

The Democratic Convention met at Cincinnati. There 
was no decided current toward any candidate, as Mr. 
Tilden had declined a nomination. General Hancock led 
from the start, Mr. Bayard being second, and was nomi- 
nated on the third ballot amid great enthusiasm. Wm. 
H. English, of Indiana, was nominated for Vice-President. 
The platform adopted denounced the grand fraud of 
1876-77 in general and in detail, and declared in favor 
" of Home-Rule ; honest money, consisting of gold and 
silver and paper convertible into coin on demand; the 
strict maintenance of the public faith, State and National ; 
and a tariff for revenue only." 

Everything at first seemed to promise the election of 
General Hancock. As the campaign proceeded his sup- 



HAYES' ADMINISTRATION. 



213 



porters became more enthusiastic; his enemies could find 
no flaw in his record, and his many knightly qualities 
strongly appealed to popular admiration, and when the 
Republicans were beaten in the September election in 
Maine the hopes of his supporters grew into confidence. 
Both Ohio and Indiana, however, were carried by the 
Republicans in the October election — the latter State, as 
it was charged and believed by Democrats, through the 
abundant expenditure of money and by systematic corrup- 
tion. The Grant men held somewhat aloof in the be- 
ginning, but rallied to the support of Garfield in the 
closing weeks of the campaign. 

The popular vote gave Hancock, 4,444,952 votes; Gar- 
field 4,454,416; Weaver, 308,578. Of the electoral vote, 
Garfield had 214; Hancock, 155. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENTS 
GARFIELD AND ARTHUR, 1881-1885. 



AS already stated, the election of General Garfield was 
secured by the lavish expenditure of money in 
Indiana and other doubtful States and by the efforts of 
the Grant wing of the party in the closing weeks of the 
campaign. When the new President announced his Cabi- 
net, with Mr. Blaine as Secretary of State, it was clear that 
the peace patched up between the two wings of the party 
was a precarious one, and the brief remaining period of 
President Garfield's life was soon embittered by a con- 
troversy between himself and Mr. Conkling as to 
Federal appointments in the State of New York, which 
led to the resignation of Mr. Conkling from the Senate 
and a long and bitter contest over the election of his 
successor in the Legislature of that State. The bullet of 
Guiteau removed General Garfield and ended his adminis- 
tration before the breach between the two sections of the 
party became as complete and bitter as it promised to 
become, and although the administration of President 
Arthur tended greatly to heal party dissensions and to re- 
store party harmony, this factional schism was not without 

its influence in throwing the vote of New York against the 
(214) 




PEP : 




WILLIAM R. MORRISON. 



GARFIELD AND ARTHUR'S ADMINISTRATION. 



217 



Republican party in the following campaign. Little need 
be said of the history of parties during the administra- 
tion of President Arthur, as there were few subjects of 
legislation or of public policy upon which party lines 
were strictly drawn. 

The existence of large surplus revenues called public 
attention very forcibly, in the beginning of this administra- 
tion, to the necessity of revising federal taxes and reform- 
ing the tariff system, which was a legacy of the careless 
and random legislation inevitable during the war and in 
the years thereafter. The first message, therefore, of Pres- 
ident Arthur declared that the time had come when the 
people may justly demand some relief from their onerous 
burdens, and urged upon Congress a revision and re- 
duction of tariff taxation. Congress itself attempted no 
relief, but responded to these recommendations and to the 
pressure of public opinion by the act of May 5, 1882, es- 
tablishing a tariff commission to " take into consideration, 
and to thoroughly investigate, all the various questions re- 
lating to the agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, min- 
ing and industrial interests of the United States, so far as 
the same may be necessary to the establishment of a judi- 
cious tariff or a revision of the existing tariff on a scale 
of justice to all." If there be any one blot upon the 
record of President Author, whose administration it must 
be conceded was generally a respectable and honorable one 
so far as he was personally concerned, it will be found in 
the manner in which he selected the nine members of this 
this commission — giving to the protected industries of the 
country a large majority of the commission through men 



2i8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

selected by them, or identified with them, while the in- 
comparable mass of taxpayers in the country had no rep- 
resentation in the commission charged with the important 
duty of revising that system of taxation which the Presi- 
dent had already declared an onerous burden upon them. 
Had President Cleveland in selecting the members of the 
Inter-State Commerce Commission allowed the great rail- 
road corporations of the country to dictate to him the names 
he should send in to the Senate, he would have done ex- 
actly what President Arthur did in constituting the tariff 
commission. That commission, framed as it was, was com- 
pelled to report to Congress at its session in December, 

1882, a scheme of tariff duties in which reduction was 
professed to be the distinguishing feature, averaging, as it 
declared, not less than 20, and possibly 25 per cent. The 
short session of the Forty-seventh Congress was accord- 
ingly taken up with the question of tariff revision, result- 
ing in the existing law, known as the act of March 3, 

1883, which under the skillful manipulation of the lobbies 
sent to Washington by the protected industries, aided by 
their friends and representatives in both Houses of Con- 
gress, and finally consummated in the secret recesses of a 
conference committee, made but a nominal reduction, if 
any, in tariff taxes, and none whatever in the protective 
bounties. The elections in the fall of 1882 were a repe- 
tition of the great tidal wave victories of 1874, and in the 
Forty-eighth Congress, which reassembled in December, 
1883, the Democratic majority in the House was nearly as 
large as it had been in the Forty-fourth Congress, and Mr. 
John G. Carlisle, of Kentucky, distinguished as an advocate 



GARFIELD AND ARTHUR'S ADMINISTRATION. 



219 



of tariff reduction, was selected by them as their candidate 
for Speaker. The Committee on Ways and Means, of 
which Colonel Wm. R. Morrison, of Illinois, was Chair- 
man, was accordingly organized with reference to the re- 
vision and reduction of the tariff. The Secretary of the 
Treasury, in his annual report to Congress, had declared 
that the bill of March 3, 1883, had not relieved the 
treasury of excessive revenues, so the question still presses 
as to what reduction is necessary to relieve the people of 
unnecessary taxes. But, although there was a large ma- 
jority of tariff reformers in the ranks of the Democratic 
party, they did not constitute a majority of the House and. 
were unable to carry through the bill reported from the 
Committee of Ways and Means, or to prevent the striking 
out of its enacting clause when its consideration for 
amendment was begun. 

President Arthur was a candidate for renomination by 
his party and received a strong support throughout the 
country, but Mr. Blaine led from the start, receiving on 
the first ballot 334^ votes to 278 for Arthur, with smaller 
votes for some half dozen other candidates, and was nomi- 
nated on the fourth ballot by a clear majority over all. 
General John A. Logan, of Illinois, received the nomina- 
tion for the Vice-Presidency. The convention met at Chi- 
cago on the 3d of June, and its platform pledged the Re- 
publican party to correct the irregularities of the tariff 
and to reduce the surplus — being otherwise a thorough 
protective platform. 

The nomination of Mr. Blaine immediately produced a 
bolt from the Republican party, and the Democratic Con- 



220 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

vention, which met at Chicago on the 8th of July, nomi- 
nated on the second ballot Grover Cleveland, Governor of 
New York, and Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana, con- 
sented to accept the nomination for Vice-President. The 
platform declared in favor of taxation limited to the re- 
quirements of economical government and the necessary 
reduction of taxation without depriving the American 
laborer of the ability to compete successfully with foreign 
labor, and without the imposition of rates of duty which 
would invite foreign immigration in consequence of the 
higher rates of wages prevailing in this country. It further 
declared that sufficient revenue to pay all the expenses 
of the Government could be gotten from custom-house 
taxation on fewer imported articles, bearing heaviest on 
articles of luxury and lightest on articles of necessity. 
Subject to these limitations, and recognizing the fact that 
many industries had come to rely on legislation for suc- 
cessful continuance and that any change of law must be 
regardful of the laboring classes, the platform declared that 
Federal taxation should be exclusively for public purposes; 
it favored the setting apart of all the money derived from the 
internal revenue for the relief of the people from the 
remaining burdens of the war and for funds to defray the 
expense of the care and comfort of the soldiers disabled 
in the line of duty in the wars of the republic, and for the 
payment of such pensions as Congress might from time 
to time grant to such soldiers — any surplus to be paid into 
the treasury. That section of the Republican party, em- 
bracing no small part of its intelligence and moral worth, 
which refused to support Mr. Blaine received the designa- 



GARFIELD AND ARTHUR'S ADMINISTRATION. 2 2I 

tion of " Mugwumps," and as the canvass proceeded it was 
most unsparingly ridiculed and coarsely denounced by its 
late party associates. There were also defections from the 
ranks of the Democratic party, so that the issue was in 
doubt from the beginning, but finally resulted in the elec- 
tion of Cleveland and Hendricks, who received 4,874,986 
votes at the polls to 4,851,981 votes for Blaine and Logan. 
In the electoral vote Cleveland received 219 to 182 for 
Blaine. Two other candidates were voted for — John P. 
St. John, of Kansas, as Prohibitionist, receiving 150,369 
votes, and Benjamin F. Butler, nominee of the National 
party, received 175,370. The election of Cleveland was 
hailed by the Democrats throughout the country with un- 
speakable rejoicing, and his inauguration, on the 4th of 
March following, gathered in Washington a concourse such 
as no previous similar occasion had brought to that city. 



CHAPTER XX. 



HISTORY UNDER PRESIDENT 
CLEVELAND, MARCH 4, 1885. 



THE return of the Democratic party to power with the 
election of Grover Cleveland will always mark an 
epoch in the history of the country. It signalled the close 
of the war, the wane of sectionalism as a power in Amer- 
ican politics, and the coming in of a national in the place 
of a sectional party. For the first time since 1861 repre- 
sentative men from the South appeared in the cabinet and 
shared in the honors and responsibilities of the administra- 
tion. The position of the new President was one of un- 
usual burden and beset with difficulties which the people 
have not yet fully comprehended and appreciated. He was 
himself a stranger, not only to his position but to all his 
surroundings and to the leaders and prominent men of his 
party. That party for nearly a quarter of a century had 
been the party of criticism and the party of opposition, too 
weak at times to interpose serious obstruction to the 
measures and policies of the dominant party. It had been 
returned to power not so much for the ideas and policies 
it represented, as because the people were weary of sec- 
tionalism, alarmed at the usurpations, and resentful of the 

centralization and rank Federalism of the Republican 
(222) 




GROVER CLEVELAND. 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. / 225 

party and its subservience to special interests, and those 
the interests of consolidated capital as against the people. 
The shameless jugglery by which, in 1883, it had pretended 
to reduce taxes, while really making the masses more trib- 
utary to the protected interests, and labor more tributary 
to capital, had also alienated many from its ranks. It was 
natural, therefore, that upon its first return to power the 
Democratic party, made up of all the elements of opposi- 
tion to the practices and policies of the past twenty years, 
should lack something of the homogeneousness and organic 
unity of a party organized upon clear and definite lines 
of public policy. The great majority of the party was 
undoubtedly true to Democratic principles, but there were 
co-operating with it many who were rather anti-Republicans 
than real Democrats. It is to the credit of the President 
that, while he has steadily and faithfully administered the 
government upon those plain, rigid, business principles that 
had marked his official career as Governor of New York 
and are of the essence of practical Democracy, he has also 
shown himself a party leader, not in the machine sense 
of the term, but as the exponent of ideas and policies, and 
that the Democratic party in 1888 is no longer a combina- 
tion of loosely-tied forces of opposition to the Republicans, 
but a great living organism, instinct with life, with enthu- 
siasm, and rallied upon great principles which it under- 
stands, believes in, and is eager to champion. 

The several articles which follow give, under their ap- 
propriate heads, some of the positive achievements of this 
administration, and a recital of them here would be need- 
less repetition. The reform of the Civil Service, the re- 
14 



226 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

building of the navy, the recovery of squandered public 
lands, the administration of our Pension system for the 
relief and benefit of real soldiers, the spirited but • dignified 
conduct of foreign affairs, all these are treated with other 
matters in detail. Perhaps no more perplexing question 
met the President on the threshold of his great trust 
than that of removals and appointments to office, and 
doubtless there is none in which he has been more 
harshly and unjustly judged, both by the spoilsmen of 
his own party and the theoretical Civil Service reformers 
of the country. His position was very different from that 
of Mr. Jefferson and General Jackson when they came 
into office succeeding adverse administrations. While both 
Jefferson and Jackson found the Civil Service full of 
the appointees of the opposite party, the abuses of the 
service were nothing compared to those which had grown 
up with successive Republican administrations. During all 
those administrations Democrats had not only been un- 
sparingly excluded from positions in the government from 
the highest to the lowest, but these positions had been 
parcelled out as rewards for active, vindictive partisanship 
against them. The 100,000 or more office-holders had 
been organized into a standing army, used in every elec- 
tion by the Republican party to beat back the people 
and help maintain the party's supremacy. In every politi- 
cal campaign federal office-holders had swarmed through- 
out the country doing party work, and making themselves 
especially active and offensive at the polls. An all-perva- 
sive, merciless and coercive system of political assessments 
had sought out the cross-roads postmaster and tolled his 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 



227 



meagre salary to swell the campaign funds. Even In the 
midst of the Presidential contest of 1880, General Gar- 
field, who made high professions as a Civil Service re- 
former, had inquired of " My Dear Hubbell," how the 
departments were doing, that is to say, how liberally or 
promptly the clerks and employes were meeting their as- 
sessments. Great party bosses pensioned their partisans on 
the public service, and called them off at will to man- 
ipulate primaries, set up conventions and carry elections. 
Moreover, no party ever became more thoroughly imbued 
with the old Bourbon idea " I am the State " than the 
Republican party had become. Not only to its leaders 
but to its rank and file, Democrats were not merely 
members of an opposing political organization ; they stood 
upon a lower plane of citizenship ; were not entitled to 
assert and enjoy the same rights of citizenship as them- 
selves. True, the enormities of these abuses had at- 
tracted public attention and some efforts had been made 
under Grant and Hayes to suppress the most glaring of 
them, but except when some individual official attempted 
to remedy them in his own office, which was seldom, 
little had been accomplished until a footing was obtained 
for reform by the passage of the Pendleton Bill in 
March, 1883, introducing the merit system for admission 
into some departments of the public service, and the 
presidential campaign of 1884 had disclosed as many and 
as extreme exhibitions of offensive partisanship as any in 
the history of our country. The Commissioner of Pen- 
sions took charge of the Republican campaign in the 
great and doubtful October States of Ohio and Indiana, 



228 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

first offering his resignation, to take effect after the presi- 
dential election, but holding on to his office throughout the 
campaign, with all its compulsory, suggestive or persuasive 
influence over the tens of thousands of pension applicants 
in these States. Such was the condition of the service 
when President Cleveland, an outspoken and earnest 
champion of Civil Service Reform, was inaugurated, in 
1885. His own party not unnaturally, and, to its credit 
be it said, with no greater pressure than had marked the 
change from one Republican administration to another, ex- 
pected him to brush aside that ostracism which had 
systematically excluded them from office. There were 
some who looked only to a just equilibrium in the ser- 
vice, while others as fully imbued with belief in the 
spoils system as their opponents had shown themselves 
demanded a clean sweep and an immediate change in 
all the departments of the public service. Over against 
these were the extreme theoretical Civil Service reformers 
who looked with suspicion, and in a carping spirit, upon 
any removals, and would have had the President attempt 
to conduct his administration with the official service 
which the Republicans had built up, not upon the merit 
system, but by the most outrageous application of the 
spoils system. The President could not expect to satisfy 
either extreme, and clearly he did not desire to do so. 
He did not hesitate to replace Republicans whose com- 
missions expired with appointees of his own party; he 
did not hesitate to remove those whose faithlessness to 
official duty, or perversion of their positions to partisan 
purposes or active, personal participation in partisan poli- 







SAMUEL S. COX. 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 



23I 



tics, had in his judgment disqualified them for positions 
under a Democratic administration. But it is not fair to 
the President nor conductive to the advancement of true 
Civil Service reform, to cite merely the number of changes 
he has made in a Civil Service, infected from top to 
bottom with partisanship and long trained in the idea that 
service to party was paramount to service to the public, 
without also considering the different basis of qualification 
on which the President has rested his appointments, and 
how carefully he has endeavored to make personal fitness 
rather than partisan activity the ground of selection. There 
is more Civil Service reform in this than in declining to 
remove improper officials. 

Impartial history will record that a Democratic President 
coming into power at the head of a party which had been 
offensively excluded from all political positions under the 
government for twenty-four years; which in every cam- 
paign had been fought and harried by the Pretorian band 
of federal office-holders, and had been the victim of every 
conceivable wrong of the spoils system, by his moderation 
in removals, his painstaking care in appointments, and his 
enforcement of thorough business ideas in every department 
of the public service, has given to Civil Service Reform a 
far deeper root and a far more permanent and healthy 
growth than any of his predecessors, whose inaugurations 
only marked the transfer of the chief magistracy from one 
to another member of the same party. No one who con- 
trasts the Presidential campaigns of 1884 and 1888 can 
fail to note how far the hand has moved forward on the 
dial, and whatever the result of the election may be, he can- 



232 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



not believe that it will ever move backward again. This 
has been the work of Grover Cleveland. 

One other matter will be briefly noticed here, as not 
coming particularly in the scope of any of the special 
articles of this volume, and that is the President's position 
on the question of tariff reform. Beginning with his first 
annual message the President has urged upon Congress 
the reduction of surplus revenues by a reduction of the 
burdens of taxation. The subject has grown upon the 
President as it has upon the country, and his message of 
December, 1887, omitting the general survey of federal 
affairs usual in such a communication, was devoted exclu- 
sively to this great subject. No communicatioji from the 
White House ever had a more magical effect upon parties 
in the country. The Democratic party, the hereditary 
champion of the people, felt the throbbings of a new life 
in its veins. Once more as in the days of Jefferson against 
Federalism, as in the days of Jackson against the bank, it 
was summoned by a leader to fight for equal rights against 
privilege and monopoly, to fight the battles of the people 
against the money power, and it responded loyally to the 
summons. With over 70 majority in the House of Repre- 
sentatives in the Forty-eighth Congress it had been able 
to give only general debate to a tariff reduction bill ; with 
over 40 majority in the Forty-ninth Congress it had not 
been able even to consider such a bill ; but with a majority 
of less than 15 in the Fiftieth Congress it triumphantly and 
by a practically solid party vote carried through the House 
a bill revising and reducing tariff taxes. The Republican] 
party was also galvanized into new life by the President's 




^®fei 



Mm 




ALLEN G. THURMAN. 



CLEVELAND'S ADMINISTRATION. 2 $$ 

message. Its leaders eagerly seized the prospect of return- 
ing to power through alliance with the great protected in- 
dustries of the country, and by the aid of those subsidized 
interests which will earnestly throw their great resources 
of men and means to the aid of any party that will guar- 
antee them a continuance of those bounties from the public 
treasury and fight for the maintenance of their monopolies. 

There was no other candidate thought of than President 
Cleveland when the National Democratic Convention met 
at St. Louis in June, 1888, and he was renominated unan- 
imously and amid great enthusiasm upon a platform en- 
dorsing his message and approving the Mills' bill for tariff 
reduction as its practical interpretation. 

Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, whose name for many years 
has been a synonym of old-fashioned Democratic faith, and 
a name to conjure with among the masses of the party, 
was chosen for Vice-President on the first ballot. The 
Republican Convention met at Chicago, June 19, and on 
the eighth ballot nominated Benjamin Harrison, of Indiana, 
for President, with whom it joined Levi P. Morton, of New 
York, for Vice-President. Its platform declared in favor 
of an ultra protective policy and a liberal system of appro- 
priations. 

Clinton B. Fisk, of New Jersey, and John A. Brooks, of 
Missouri, were nominated for President and Vice-President 
by a Prohibition Convention which met at Indianapolis 
May 30. 

And thus the Democratic party, having found not only 
leaders but a great cause, has been transformed from a 
party of Opposition into a party of positive policies and 



236 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



aggressive courage. As such it appeals to the people, 
whose battle it is righting, and in an especial manner to 
the youth and the intelligence of the land. In its success 
are involved not only the issues of just and equal taxation, 
but the more momentous question whether the race in life 
shall still be kept open and unhindered to the poor and 
humble, or the chasm between the rich and the poor grow 
steadily wider and more difficult to cross, as the power of 
the government is thrown in favor of the former and against 
the latter. 



pa*t II. 



eURRENT ISSUES AND POME& 

(237) 




JEFFERSON CHANDLER. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 



Hon. Jefferson Chandler, LL. D. 

TT has been declared by one of the wisest of modern 
statesmen that the Constitution of the United 
States is the greatest work ever struck off at a given 
time by the brain and purpose of man. This system 
of American government, resting upon the sovereignty 
of the people, defined and limited by State, and Federal 
constitutions, is the first in the world's history to deny 
the dogma of unlimited power in government. It is 
the first to correctly define and locate sovereignty, 
and to fix its seat in the consent of the governed. 
It is the first to reduce pure democratic doctrines to 
a political philosophy, and to declare that governments 
are instituted to secure to mankind rights with which 
they are endowed by their Creator and over which 
State jurisdiction does not and cannot extend. It is 
the first to proclaim the existence of an area of per- 
sonal liberty and a jurisdiction superior to, and above the 
State, presided over by private judgment, in which free, 
religious and other opinions, the right of exemption from 
personal control and the right to pursue , happiness, 
are sheltered, by constitutional immunity, from govern- 

C24O 



242 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

mental invasion. It is the first to divide, and at the 
same time to compound, Federal and State sovereignty 
in one system, and to make the whole unassailably 
strong, by exacting of the Federal government pro- 
tection of all the States, and by building each State 
upon the affections of the people thereof. 

This system is little, if any, less than a revelation. 
Into it are imported the ripest and wisest conclusions 
of our race, gathered from every field of human 
knowledge. To preserve this system is the highest 
ambition and duty of the American people. Every 
great political contest brings the principles of our 
institutions and civilizations up for review, and in- 
vites a comparison of the relative fidelity of the great 
contending parties to them. 

Parties may divide on the methods of administering 
the government, and their success or failure leave no 
permanent impression on the system itself. But con- 
tinued party success on convert, or declared disrespect 
of the system, or any of its parts, will, in a brief 
period, work the overthrow of the whole. The su- 
preme issue in American politics now is, and will always 
be, a correct understanding and the preservation of 
the government itself. The Constitution of the United 
States and its construction, have been the special 
political battle ground of the last twenty years. The 
center of the conflict has been, and now is, the Con- 
stitutional rights of the States. 

It is the object of this article to review this 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 243 

struggle and from its history to demonstrate two prop- 
ositions — first, that the creed of the Democracy is 
the gospel of the Constitution, that the Democratic 
party has attained and will retain power, because a 
majority of the people of the United States so believe ; 
and, second, that the Republican party has been re- 
duced to a minority because of its betrayal of the 
Constitution, and that it has degenerated into a rev- 
olutionary force. 

. As a basis for these conclusions it will be assumed 
that the fidelity to the Constitution of the United 
States includes and requires fidelity to the rights of 
the States, that the whole government, State and Fed- 
eral, is a unit, that State and Federal sovereignty are 
but different hemispheres of one system, and that 
neither can sustain injury without suffering to both ; 
that each moves in its sphere under the full con- 
stitutional sympathy and protection of the other. 

The Federal Constitution contains provisions not only 
interdicting the Federal Government from attacking 
the States, but it has provisions also which require 
the Federal Government to uphold and sustain the 
States. 

•In "Lane County vs. Oregon, 7 Wall., 76" the 
Supreme Court say, " The people of the United States 
constitute one nation, under one government, and this 
government within the scope of the powers with 
which it is vested is supreme. On the other hand, 
the people of each State compose a State, having its 



244 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

own government, and endowed with all the functions 
essential to separate and independent existence. The 
states disunited might continue to exist ; without the 
states, in union, there could be no such political body 
as the United States." * * * * 

" To them nearly the whole charge of interior 
regulation is committed or left ; to them and to the 
people all powers not expressly delegated to the 
National Government are reserved. The general con- 
dition was well stated by Mr. Madison in the 
Federalist thus : ' The Federal and State Governments 
are in fact but different agents and trustees of the people, 
constituted with different powers and designated for 
different purposes '," 

" Under the constitution, though the powers of the 
State were much restricted, still, all powers not dele- 
gated to the United States, nor prohibited to the 
States, are reserved to the States respectfully or to the 
people, and we have already had occasion to remark 
at this term, that ' the people of each State compose 
a State having" its own government, and endowed with 
all the functions essential to separate and independent 
existence ', and that ' without the States in union, there 
could be no such political body as the United States'. 
Not only, therefore, can there be no loss of separate 
and independent autonomy to the States through their 
union under the Constitution, but it may be not 
unreasonably said, that the preservation of the States 
and the maintenance of their governments are as much 
within the design and care of the Constitution as the 
preservation of the Union and the maintenance of the 
National Government. The Constitution in all its 
provisions looks to an indestructable Union, composed of 
indestructable States." Texas vs. White, 7 Wall., 725. 

A wrongful substitution of Federal power for ex- 
clusive State authority is, to the extent of such sub- 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 245 

stitution, revolution ; and when such substitution is 
made or attempted, to achieve or retain political 
ascendancy, it is a crime against the government. 
If it be done with a lack of understanding of the 
Constitution, it shows such unpardonable imbecility as 
to make the party doing it ineligible to the confidence 
of the American people. The Democratic party believe 
with the founders of the Republic and the Supreme Court, 
that " a State has the same undeniable and unlimited 
jurisdiction over all persons and things within their 
territorial limits as any foreign nation, except as 
surrendered or restrained by the United States Con- 
stitution." N. Y. vs. Miln, 11 Pet., 139. 

Upon this plain and impregnable ground the Demo- 
cratic party has stood through its entire career. It 
has taught these doctrines to generations and has in 
every forum contended for them. It can without 
exageration be said that its political creed has at all 
times expressed them. These doctrines are the life of 
American civilization. On the contrary, the Republican 
party is the enemy of the States. It teaches that the 
assertion of State independence is in some way a 
menace to the Federal Government. It has while in 
power, in order to continue its supremacy, enacted 
legislation destructive of the States, and which, if 
judicially sustained, would have extinguished State 
sovereignty. Its political teachings are derisive of State 
independence, and inimical to locate self-government. 

Republican teaching reduces the States to a crouch- 



246 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ing and obsequous relation to the Federal Government. 
It insiduously propogates the heresy that loyalty to 
the States is disloyalty to the Union. All this will 
be confirmed by the platformes, enactments and decisions 
thereon hereafter presented. It will appear that the 
policy of the past is threatened for the future, and 
that the paramount issue in the campaign of 1888 is: 
Shall the States rest secure under constitutional 
limitations and continue the prosperity and composure 
resulting therefrom, or will a new crusade against 
them be inaugurated by a restoration of the Repub- 
lican party to power ? A Republican Congress passed, 
and a Republican President approved, May 31st, 1870, 
an act reported in 16th Statute at Large, page 140, 
sections 3 and 4, of which are as follows : 

The third section is to the effect that whenever, by, 
or under, the Constitution, or laws, of any State, &c, 
any act is, or shall be, required to be done by any 
citizen as a prerequisite to qualify or entitle him to 
vote, the offer of such citizen to perform the act 
required to be done " as aforesaid " shall, if it fail to 
be carried into execution by reason of the wrongful 
act or omission " aforesaid " of the person or officer 
charged with the duty of receiving or permitting such 
performance, or offer to perform, or acting thereon, 
be deemed and held as a performance, in law, of such 
act ; and the person so offering and failing as afore- 
said, and being otherwise qualified, shall be entitled 
to vote in the same manner, and to the same extent, 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 247 

as if he had in fact performed such act ; and any judge, 
inspector, or other officer of election whose duty it is 
to receive, count, &c, or give effect to the vote of 
any such citizen, upon presentation by him of his 
affidavit stating such offer, and the time and place 
thereof, and the name of the person or officer whose 
duty it was to act thereon, and that he was wrong- 
fully prevented by such person or officer from per- 
forming such act, shall if vote be refused wrongfully 
for every such offence, forfeit and pay, &c. 

The fourth section provides for the punishment of 
any such person who shall, by force, bribery threats^ 
intimidation, or other unlawful means hinder, delay, 
&c, or shall combine with others to hinder, delay or 
obstruct any citizen from doing any act required to 
be done to qualify him to vote or from voting at; 
any election. These sections it will be seen explicitly 
invade and take hold in terms, of the reserved power 
of the State and the individual elective franchise of 
the people for State officers. It is declared that 
whenever by or under the Constitution or laws of any 
State, &c, any act is or shall be required to be 
done by any citizen as a prerequisite to qualify or 
entitle him to vote, &c, &c. 

This enactment attempted by the use of Federal 
power, to qualify persons to vote who were ineligible 
under State laws, in State elections, and to control 
State officers in the conduct of State elections, and 
to secure a different result in State elections from 
15 



248 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the result reached under State authority. It was an 
attempt to seize the entire election machinery of the 
States and to put it under Federal supervision. The 
Supreme Court of the United States, in holding the 
act unconstitutional, declares that " within its legitimate 
sphere Congress is supreme, and beyond the control 
of the Courts ; but if it steps outside of its consti- 
tutional limitations and attempts that which is beyond 
its reach, the Courts are authorized to, and when 
called upon in due course of judicial proceedings 
must, annul its encroachments upon the reserved power 
of the States and the people." United States vs. 
Reese, et al. 92 U. S., page 221. On page 219, the 
Court say: " The statute contemplates a most impor- 
tant change in the election laws. Previous to its 
adoption, the States as a general rule regulated in 
their own way all the details of elections. Had this 
encroachment upon the States been upheld by the 
Supreme Court, it would have made what theretofore 
were State elections, Federal elections, and the su- 
preme exclusive constitutional power of States in local 
elections would have then and there become extinct. 
The constitutional sovereignty of the States in their 
own elections would have perished, and State lines 
practically obliterated. These statutes were the visible 
beginning of a scheme to centralize the government and 
work a revolution thereof. They were enacted and at- 
tempted to be enforced in the South when sectional 
feeling ran high in the North, and Southern people were 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 249 

thought to be helpless. The scheme failed because of 
the devotion of the South to the rights of the States, 
and because of the patriotism of the Supreme Court of 
the United States. 

To further project Federal authority into the ex- 
clusive domain of State sovereignty, and to subvert 
the same, the Republican party pushed through Con- 
gress, and had approved April 20th, 1871, an act, 
part of which was afterwards included in the Revised 
Statutes of the United States, and is known as Sec. 
5519, which reads as follows: — 

Section 5519 of the Revised Statutes is in the fol- 
lowing words: "If two or more persons in any State 
or Territory conspire to go in disguise on the high- 
way or on the premises of another for the purpose 
of depriving, either directly or indirectly, any person 
or class of persons, of the equal protection of the 
laws, or for the purpose of preventing or hindering 
the constituted authorities of any State or Territory 
from giving or securing to all persons within such 
State or Territory, the equal protection of the laws, 
each of said persons shall be punished by a fine of 
not less than $500, or more than $5,000, or by 
imprisonment with or without hard labor not less than 
siz months or more than six years, or by both such 
fine or imprisonment." 

This act reached into the domestic government of 
the State, and if operative, took out of State juris- 
diction, acts of alleged violence, committed by one 



250 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

individual against another, and transferred jurisdiction 
thereof from the State, to the Federal courts. It 
went further, and set the Federal Government up as 
a judge of whether persons had hindered the consti- 
tuted authorities of a State from giving or securing 
to all persons the equal protection of the laws. It 
undertook to make the Federal courts judges of — first : 
whether a State had failed to give security to all 
persons within the State, and, second : whether it had 
been hindered in giving such security by the persons 
charged before the Federal courts. Two or more per- 
sons being indicted in a Federal court under this 
enactment for "hindering the constituted authorities of 
a State from giving or securing to all persons within 
such State or Territory the equal protection of the 
laws," the State, though not a party to the . proceed- 
ing, was put on trial for failing to give security to 
all persons within its limits, and after proof of such 
failure, which the State could neither deny or explain, 
the only remaining step necessary to be taken to 
authorize a conviction of the parties accused, was to 
trace such alleged failure of the State to the defend- 
ants on trial. The alleged neglect of the constituted 
authorities of the State to do their duty was made 
an element of the charge. This so-called law required 
the Federal court to decide what privileges and immu- 
nities citizens of a State had and held under State 
laws ; it required said Federal courts to decide when 
the duty of the constituted authorities of the State 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 25 I 

act in administering their own laws, arose, and fur- 
ther, that the persons charged had conspired to hinder 
said authorities in the discharge of that duty. This 
act held the Southern States, where its inforcement 
was attempted, in degradation from the date of its 
passage until 1882, when it was by the Supreme 
Court of the United States declared unconstitutional. 
United States vs. Harris, 106, U. S., pages 629-644, 
wherein it is said : 

" Section 5519, according to the theory of the pros- 
ecution, and as appears by its terms, was framed to 
protect from invasion by private persons, the equal 
privileges and immunities under the laws, of all per- 
sons and classes of persons." 

The extent to which this legislation went in pros- 
trating and superceding State authority and in sup- 
planting it with Federal power, is described in the 
language -of the judges themselves: 

" Upon this question, United States vs. Reese, 92 U. 
S., 214, is in point. In that case this court had 
under consideration the constitutionality of the third 
and fourth sections of the act of May 31st, 1870, 
114, now constituting sections 2007, 2008, 5506 of 
the Revised Statutes. The third section of the act 
made it an offence for any judge, inspector, or other 
officer of election, whose duty it was under the cir- 
cumstances therein stated, to receive and count the 
vote of any citizen, to wrongfully refuse to receive 
and count the same ; and the fourth section made it 
an offence for any person by force, bribery or other 
unlawful means to hinder or delay any citizen from 
voting at any election, or from doing any act required 
to be done to qualify him to vote." 

The indictment in the case charged two inspectors 



252 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

of a municipal election in the State of Kentucky 
with refusing to receive and count at such election 
the vote of William Garner, a citizen of the United 
States, of African descent. It was contended by the 
defendants that it was not within the constitutional 
power of Congress to pass the section under which 
the indictment was based. The attempt was made by 
the counsel for the United States to sustain the law 
as warranted by the Fifteenth Amendment to the 
Constitution of the United States; but this court held 
it not to be appropriate legislation under that amend- 
ment. The ground of the decision was that the 
sections referred to were broad enough not only to 
punish those who hindered and delayed the enfranchised 
colored citizen from voting on account of his race, 
color, or previous condition of servitude, but also those 
who hindered or delayed the free white citizen. The 
Court, speaking by the Chief Justice, said: "It would 
certainly be dangerous if the legislature could set a 
net large enough to catch all possible offenders, and 
leave it to the courts to step inside and say who 
could be rightfully detained and who should be set 
at large. This would, to some extent, substitute the 
judicial for the legislative department of the govern- 
ment. The courts enforce the' legislative will, when 
ascertained, if within the constitutional grant of power. 
But if Congress steps outside of its constitutional 
limitation and attempts that which is beyond its 
reach, the courts are authorized to, and when called 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 253 

upon must, annul its encroachments upon the reserved 
rights of the States and the people." 

And the court declared that it could not limit the 
statute so as to bring it within the constitutional 
power of Congress, and concluded : " We must, there- 
fore, decide that Congress has not as yet provided by 
appropriate legislation for the punishment of the 
offences charged in the indictment." 

This decision is in point, and, applying the principle 
established by it, it is clear that the legislation now 
under consideration cannot be sustained by reference 
to the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, 

There is another view which strengthens this con- 
clusion. If Congress has constitutional authority under 
the Thirteenth Amendment to punish a conspiracy 
between two persons to do an unlawful act, it can 
punish the act itself, whether done by one or more 
persons. 

A private person cannot make Constitutions or laws, 
nor can he with authority construe them, nor can he 
administer or execute them. The only way, therefore, 
in which one private person can deprive another of 
the equal protection of the laws is by the commis- 
sion of some offence against the laws which protect 
the rights of persons, as by theft, burglary, arson, 
libel, assault, or murder. 

If, therefore, we hold that Section 5519 is warranted 
by the Thirteenth Amendment, we should by virtue 
of that amendment, accord to Congress the power to 



254 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

punish every crime by which the right of any person 
to life, property or reputation is invaded. Thus, under 
a provision of the Constitution which simply abolished 
slavery and involuntary servitude, we should, with few 
exceptions, invest Congress with power over the whole 
catalogue of crimes. A construction of the amend- 
ment which leads to such a result is clearly unsound. 

There is only one other clause in the Constitution 
of the United States which can, in any degree, be 
supposed to sustain the section under consideration ; 
namely, the second section of Article 4, which declares 
that "the citizens of each State shall be entitled to 
all the privileges and immunities of citizens of the 
several States." But this Section, like the Fourteenth 
Amendment, is directed against State action. Its object 
is to place the citizens of each State on the same 
footing with the citizens of other States, and inhibit 
discriminative legislation against them by other States. 
Paul vs. Virginia, 8 Wall, 168. 

Referring to the same provision of the Constitution, 
this Court said, in Slaughter House Cases, ubi supra, 
that it "did not create those rights which it called 
privileges and immunities of citizens of the States. It 
threw around them in that clause no security for the 
citizen of the State in which they were claimed or 
exercised. Nor did it confess the power to control 
the power of the State governments over the rights 
of its own citizens. Its sole purpose was to declare to 
the several States that whatever rights, as you grant 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 255 

or establish them to your own citizens, or as you 
limit or qualify, or impose restrictions on their exer- 
cise, the same, neither more nor less, shall be the 
measure of the rights of citizens of other States 
within your jurisdiction." 

It was never supposed that the Section under con- 
sideration conferred on Congress the power to enact a 
law which would punish a private citizen for an in- 
vasion of the rights of his fellow citizen, conferred by 
the State of which they were both residents on all 
its citizens alike. 

We have, therefore, been unable to find any con- 
stitutional authority for the enactment of Section 5519 
of the Revised Statutes. The decisions of this Court 
above referred to leave no constitutional ground for 
the act to stand on. 

The point in reference to which the Judges of the 
Circuit Court were divided in opinion must, therefore, 
be decided against the Constitutionality of the lazv" 

On the 1st of March, 1875, Congress, still in the 
hands of the Republican party, enacted what is known 
as the Civil Rights Bill. This statute asserted the 
supreme legislative authority of Congress, without ex- * 
ception, over all the public and quasi-public institutions 
of the States. Section 1, reads: 

"Section i. That all persons within the jurisdiction 
of the United States shall be entitled to the full and 
usual enjoyment of the accommodations, advantages, 
facilities, and privileges of inns, public conveyances on 
land or water, theatres and other places of public 



256 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

amusement ; subject only to the conditions established 
by law, and applicable alike to citizens of every race 
and color, regardless of any previous condition of 
servitude." 

If valid it operated throughout the Union and ap- 
plied to all the States alike. In describing its scope 
the Supreme Court holding it invalid, say : " An in- 
spection of the law shows that it makes no reference 
whatever to any supposed or apprehended violation of 
the Fourteenth Amendment on the part of the States. 
It is not predicated on any such view. It proceeds 
ex directo to declare that certain acts committed by 
individuals shall be deemed offences, and shall be 
prosecuted and punished by proceedings in the Courts 
of the United States. It does not profess to be cor- 
rective of any Constitutional wrong committed by the 
States ; it does not make its operation to depend upon 
any such wrong committed. It applies equally to cases 
arising in States which have the justest laws respect- 
ing the personal rights of the citizen, and whose 
authorities are ever ready to enforce such laws, as 
those which arise in States which may have violated 
the prohibition of the amendment. In other words, it 
steps into the domain of local jurisprudence, and lays 
down rules for the conduct of individuals in society 
towards each other and imposes sanctions for the en- 
forcement of those rules, without referring in any 
manner to any supposed action of the State or its 
authorities. 

"If this legislation is appropriate for enforcing the 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION^ 257 

prohibitions of the amendment, it is difficult to see 
where it is to stop. Why may not Congress with 
equal show of authority enact a code of laws for the 
enforcement and vindication of all rights of life, liberty 
and property ? If it is supposable that the State may 
deprive persons of life, liberty and property without 
due process of law, (and the amendment itself does 
suppose this), why should not Congress proceed at 
once to prescribe due process of law for the protec- 
tion of every one of these fundamental rights in every 
possible case, as well as to prescribe equal privileges 
in inns, public conveyances and theatres ? The truth 
is, that the implication of a power to legislate in this 
manner is based upon the assumption that if the 
States are forbidden to legislate or act in a particular 
way on a particular subject, and power is conferred 
upon Congress to enforce the prohibition, this gives 
Congress power to legislate generally' upon that sub- 
ject, and not merely power to provide modes of redress 
against such State legislation or action. The assump- 
tion is certainly unsound. It is repugnant to the 
Tenth Amendment of the Constitution, which declares 
that powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
reserved to the States respectively or to the people." 
And further, on pages 18 and 19 and 25, of the same 
case — " If the principles of interpretation which we have 
laid down are correct, as we deem them to be, (and 
they are in accord with the principles laid down in 



258 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the cases before referred to, as well as in the recent 
case of United States vs. Harris, 106, U. S., 629), it 
is clear that the law in question cannot be sustained 
by any grant of legislative power made to Congress 
by the Fourteenth Amendment. That Amendment 
prohibits the State from denying to any person the 
equal protection of the laws, and declares that Con- 
gress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legisla- 
tion, t.he provisions of the Amendment. The law in 
question, without any reference to adverse State legisla- 
tion on the subject, declares that all persons shall be 
entitled to equal accommodations and privileges of 
inns, public conveyances, and places of public amuse- 
ment, and imposes a penalty upon any individual who 
shall deny to any citizen such equal accommodations 
and privileges. This is not corrective legislation ; it is 
primary and direct; it takes immediate and absolute 
possession of the* subject of the right of admission of 
inns, public conveyances, and places of amusement. It 
supersedes and displaces State legislation on the same 
subject, or only allows it permissive force. It ignores 
such legislation, and assumes that the matter is one 
that belongs to the domain of national regulation. 
Whether it would have been a more effective protec- 
tion of the rights of citizens to have clothed Congress 
with plenary power over the whole subject, is not 
now the question. What we have to decide is, whether 
such plenary power has been conferred upon Congress 
by the Fourteenth Amendment, and in our judgment, 
it has not. 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 259 

On the whole, we are of opinion that no countenance 
of authority for the passage of the law in question 
can be found in either the Thirteenth or Fourteenth 
Amendment of the Constitution ; and no other ground 
of authority for its passage being suggested, it must 
necessarily be declared void, at least so far as its 
operation in the several States is concerned." 

All these conflicts were had in the South. This 
and similar legislation made the South politically solid 
against the party seeking to dismantle the Southern 
States. The South was compelled to elect between 
the overthrow of State independence, and resistance 
in the Courts to the legislation which, if sustained, 
accomplished their overthrow. Moved by a deep devo- 
tion to home rule, the Southern people contested, at 
every step, the invasion, by the Republican party of 
the right of local self-government ; in this they nave 
been vindicated by the Supreme Court of the United 
States. In saving the independence of their own 
States, they preserved that of all the States. Massa- 
chusetts and Maine owe their present measure of 
sovereignty to the intelligence and valor of the South. 

This policy of State extinction by abuse of Federal 
power, was inaugurated and attempted to be executed 
in the alleged interest of the colored people. Passing 
over the absurdity that the negro would gain by the 
destruction of State governments, and the centraliza- 
tion of all power at Washington, the immediate 
political and moral effect upon him of the policy, was 



260 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

pernicious to the last degree. It arrayed him against 
the whites, divided the people of the South into 
hostile classes, and produced commercial and industrial 
torpor. 

The colored man saw rising before his vision great 
Federal promises of favoritism to himself. He was to 
be taken under the jurisdiction of the Federal Govern- 
ment, under circumstances which gave no jurisdiction 
to that government, over his white neighbor. He was 
taught by the Republican party, that the central govern- 
ment was his friend, and the State his enemy ; that 
those who opposed these unconstitutional Federal 
statutes were inspired alone by a desire to oppress 
him. The white people saw the colored population 
used by the Republican party, as the pretext for as- 
sailing their own liberty, and as a consequence 
acrimony between the races grew, and solid opposition 
to Republican assaults upon the States was built up. 
Baneful race irritation continued so long as this legisla- 
tion survived, and until the Republican party retired 
from power. Since then all has changed in the South. 
The cause of strife perished with the causes that 
produced it. That region is no longer the theatre of 
political tumult. Race passion has subsided and is 
supplanted by order and composure. Distrust of the 
State is yielding to respect for the State. The benefi- 
cence of uniform laws is felt everywhere alike. The 
colored people have learned that the promises made 
to them by the Republican party have been broken ; 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 26 1 

that their salvation depends upon the same great laws 
of nature and principles of government which operate 
to develope and advance the white race ; that they 
are simply citizens with the whites, and must thrive 
or recede under the same laws and decrees of justice 
that apply to others; that the primitive order of 
things cannot be disturbed or changed for their con- 
venience. They will learn that Democracy is their 
reliance ; that their liberty is as much bound up in 
the preservation of the States as is that of other classes. 
There is but one political creed known under 
Heaven, and among men, whereby freedom can be 
preserved ; the crowning principle of that creed is 
man's government of himself. Centralized power in the 
few is tyranny to the many. Self rule in the masses 
is liberty for all. This fact has its support in the 
laws of nature ; it is accepted by, and is a conclu- 
sion to which civilized man has come. It is known 
that human capacity is only quickened, nourished and 
enlarged by employment and use ; that experience is 
the most efficient tutor ; that to fit man for govern- 
ment, he must participate in government. As men 
cannot excel in law, in medicine, in commerce and 
other pursuits, without the qualifying and fertilizing 
supply of wisdom appropriated from experience, so 
intelligence to govern is produced by thinking of, and 
participating in, government. Physical powers unused 
decay ; moral strength is converted into moral weak- 
ness by moral lassitude. Mental vigor is lost by 



262 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

sloth. The continued activity of free thought and 
free execution of thought is the only soil in which 
intelligence can be grown. Freedom to act in govern- 
ment stimulates thought on the subject of government 
and enriches capacity for government, This is the 
Democratic principle. This practice makes man his 
own keeper and governor, and strengthens his efficiency 
to govern. It enlists him on the side of his own 
preservation and that of his children, and makes his 
own intelligence his own protector. His own preserva- 
tion is pi'o ta?iio the preservation of the State. In 
the execution of this policy, home rule has its seat in 
the self interest and affection of the citizen. 

Government of the people for the people, has its 
highest exemplification in the system of State govern- 
ments prevailing in this country. The integrity of this 
system is the hope and reliance of this people. It 
declares and embodies most favorable conditions of 
progress. It rests upon changeless laws, which if 
obeyed bring life, liberty and intelligence to a people, 
but which, if disobeyed, bring political dissolution and 
death. A brilliant French writer once said: " Such, O 
man, who enquirest after wisdom, have been the 
causes of the revolutions of those ancient States, of 
which- you contemplate the ruins ! Upon whatever 
spot I fix my view, or to whatever period my 
thoughts recur, the same principles of elevation and 
decline, of prosperity and destruction, present them- 
selves to the mind. If a people were powerful, if an 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 263 

empire flourished, it was because the laws of conven- 
tion were conformable to those of nature ; because the 
government procured to every man respectively the 
free use of his faculties, the equal security of his 
person and property. On the contrary, if an empire 
has fallen to ruin or disappeared, it is because the 
laws .were vicious or imperfect, or a corrupt govern- 
ment has checked their operation. If laws and 
government at first rational and just have afterwards 
become depraved it is because the alternative of good 
or evil derives from the nature of the heart of man, 
from the succession of his inclinations, the progress of 
his knowledge, the combination of events and cir- 
cumstances, as the history of the human species proves." 

The right of local self or State government is the 
specific and distinct excellence of the American 
system. The Government called the United States can 
have no existence without the States. In the case of 
the County of Lane vs. the State of Oregon, 9 
Wallace, 96, the Supreme Court of the United States 
use this language : 

"The States disunited might continue to exist; 

without the States in union there could be no such 

political body as the United States." It therefore 

follows that the enemies of the States are the enemies 

of the Union ; that to the extent and degree that 

the States are pillaged of their independence, to that 

extent and degree is the Union broken down. Will 

the intelligent people of this time support a party 
16 



264 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

whose pledge is to make Federal power dominate the 
States ? The Republican party enters the campaign of 
1888 pointing exultantly to its past record of encroach- 
ment upon the States. Will the young men of this 
country passing out of the colleges and great institu- 
tions of learning into the ranks of parties, take up 
with their youthful valor the cause of the Constitution, 
or will they lend the dash and enthusiasm of their 
position to its overthrow ? Will those who toil for a 
livelihood, and whose lot is made more happy here by 
the beneficence of our institutions than it could be in 
any other part of the habitable globe, rally under the 
banner of State destruction, or will they array their 
majestic influence on the side of home government ? 
The great issue pending is the Constitution, the 
preservation of the States, and of civil liberty itself. 
The centralizing and revolutionary tendency of Re- 
publican policy is manifested further and anew, in the 
tariff plank of its platform of 1888. It declares for 
" Such revision of the tariff laws as will tend to 
check imports of such articles as are produced by our 
people ;" this declaration assumes the existence of 
Federal power to restrain and altogether inhibit, 
without regard to the power to raise Federal revenue, 
importation of merchandise by the people of all the 
States, which is of like character with merchandise 
produced in this .country, in some of the States. It 
asserts for the first time in the life of the government, 
the proposition .that ^Congress possesses jurisdiction to 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 265 

decree in what commerce shall consist, and to build, 
if it so decide, a commercial wall around the republic- 
The power to tax imports, however, implies the 
right of the people to receive imports subject to 
Federal duties imposed ; the power to regulate inter- 
national and interstate commerce, implies the right to 
carry on commerce subject to uniform regulations. 
The foregoing declaration of the Republican party 
steps beyond the power to tax, beyond the power to 
regulate commerce, and asserts authority in the Federal 
Government to prohibit international commerce altogether. 
It declares that Congress has power to favor one class 
of producers in this country, by shutting off foreign 
competion with them utterly. This power, if it exist, 
has no constitutional limitations; it is bounded only 
by the discretion of Congress. If it may be invoked to 
suppress competition against industries, now in progress, 
it may also be used to quicken and inaugurate 
products of all kinds, at any cost, whether now known 
here or not. The Federal Government, under this 
assumption of power, becomes the patron of commerce, 
with the right to select the industries that meet its 
favor, and blight and kill those upon which its dis- 
favor falls. The only power Congress possesses over 
imports is to tax and regulate them. Taxes are 
burdens or charges imposed by the law-making power 
upon persons or property to raise money for public 
purposes, or to accomplish some governmental end. 
The power to tax is limited to public purposes, and 



266 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

in extent, to governmental needs. The power to 
suppress competition with domestic industries, as a 
substantive Federal power, has no constitutional exist- 
ence. The right to trade with whom one pleases 
is a Constitutional right that cannot be repealed by- 
Congress. Judge Cooley on Torts, page 278, says : 
" It is a part of every man's civil rights that he 
be left at liberty to refuse business relations with 
any person whomsoever, whether the refusal rests 
upon reason or is the result of whim, caprice, 
prejudice or malice." In Tiedeman's Limitations of 
Police Power, page 224, Section 91, it is said : 
" The reader will scarcely need any special elabor- 
ation of the grounds upon which it is held to be 
a violation of civil liberty for the government to do 
any act which is intended to and does restrain im- 
portations, whatever may be thought of the justice 
of an import tax, in the abstract, the United States 
Constitution expressly grants to the United States 
Government the power to lay such a tax upon all 
importations. A tariff for revenue, therefore, comes 
within the legitimate exercise of police power; it is 
one mode of taxation. But no claim can be success- 
fully made to an express or implied power to establish 
a tariff whose object is to restrain importations for 
the protection of competing home industries." If Con- 
gress can promote certain industries by legislation 
not relating to raising Federal revenue, but by legisla- 
tion forbidding competition with such industries, one 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 267 

of two conclusions must follow, either that the in- 
dustries so favored by the government are public 
institutions, or that Congress is prostituting its jurisdic- 
tion to build up private fortunes by nourishing private 
enterprises. There is no difference in principle between 
assessing and collecting monies directly to sustain a 
business, and compelling payments to such business 
indirectly, by coercive and advantageous business rela- 
tions with those who carry it on. 

This avowal of power, in the Federal government, 
denies to the people of Kansas the right to buy iron 
except in States, of the Union, where it is produced. 
Kansas and the great Southwest, may strive to open 
ports of entry on Southern waters, to reach an open 
sea and the commerce of the world ; she may shorten 
her lines of traffic to salt water, to cheapen materials 
to her consumers ; yet when she has done this, the 
Federal government, so says the Republican party, 
may interdict the importation of all articles manu- 
factured in the State of Pennsylvania, and direct 
Kansas to buy there, or not at all. 

Manufactories are not, in the sense of the law, 
public institutions. Their prosperity is no more to be 
striven for, in contemplation of law, than is the 
prosperity of agriculture or other business. The con- 
stitutional jurisdiction of the Federal Government over 
them is no greater, or different, than it is over other 
pursuits. The power to tax was primarily given to 
the Federal Government, not to work out the welfare 



268 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

of any one class of producers or one group of States at 
the expense of other classes or States, but to supply 
revenues to keep the Federal machinery moving. One 
of the causes of the Revolution was the denial by 
the colonies of the right in England to compel them 
to buy of her exclusively. The colonies resisted the 
attempt to limit their commercial freedom, and asserted 
their right to trade where and with whom they 
pleased. This right they established by war, and it 
became a part of our civilization. Monarchical Govern- 
ments may possess authority, having no constitutional 
restraints upon power, to suppress commerce with 
foreign nations, but this Federal republic has no such 
power. This people have secured to themselves the 
utmost industrial liberty, subject only to proper public 
burdens and regulations. Our institutions assume that 
the people are above the State, and that government 
is a servant, and not master; that the people subject 
to equal burdens are free. 

Whether constitutional objections to the policy pro- 
posed will avail anything, however, remains to be 
seen. The Constitution has fallen to a languid estate 
in public esteem, as a result of twenty years of Re- 
publican derision of it ; when mentioned now, in or 
out of Congress, as furnishing restraint upon Federal 
power, a vulgar laugh follows. No member invokes it 
without first apologizing to the body to which he 
belongs. If public respect and official reverence for 
the Constitution, and its restraints upon ever aggres- 



THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 269 

sive official action, can not be restored, the Govern- 
ment is lost. The Constitution owes its present state 
of preservation, entirely, to great, conspicuous members 
of the Courts. Its ultimate supremacy can only be 
assured by a pure, learned, and fearless judiciary, 
imbued with the deepest veneration for our system of 
government. This will be achieved by continued, 
conscientious, Democratic rule. The last three years 
experience has demonstrated this. Under Democratic 
interpretation and administration of the Constitution, 
the South, the field where usurped Federal power pro- 
duced class acrimony, and industrial depression, has 
been lifted from confusion to composure, from irrita- 
tion to peace, from commercial stagnation to thrift, 
from dispair to confidence, and from the reign of 
arbitrary power to the reign of law. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 



Hon. John G. Carlisle, 
Speaker of the National House of Representatives. 

TF the doctrine of protection be correct, then that 
doctrine should be carried by its friends to its logi- 
cal and legitimate results — absolute prohibition of foreign 
imports. It has been stated by the leaders of the 
Republican party that such is their purpose, and the 
purpose of their political associates, if necessary, and that 
they will preserve in this country all of its own trade 
and wealth, even if compelled to erect a Chinese wall 
around it. China preserved all the trade and wealth 
of her own people within her own limits for thousands 
of years, and I do not think that the advocates of 
diversified industries, or the friends of labor, can find 
much to encourage them in the social and industrial 
condition of that country to-day. There the doctrine of 
protection, pure and simple, was carried to its logical 
results, and it produced its inevitable effects. With 
the oldest civilization in the world ; with every variety 
of soil and climate and natural resources ; with a frugal 

and industrious people ; with a literature abounding in 

(270) 








JOHN G. CARLISLE. 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 273 

philosophical and speculative thought, the useful arts 
and manufactures are still in their infancy and labor 
is still the abject slave of capital. 

We do not want another China here, nor do we 
want, or expect, absolute free trade. 

We all recognize the fact that the Government must 
have a revenue for its support, and that this revenue 
must be raised by taxation in some form or other. 
All taxation is an evil which it would be well to 
avoid, if possible, and therefore we are simply reduced 
to a choice between that system which would confine 
the trade of our own people, in a large measure at, 
least, to our own limits without increasing the revenues 
of the Government, and the more liberal system which 
will make trade and commerce as free as possible 
consistently with the raising of sufficient revenue for 
the support of the Government. 

If our manufacturing, or mining, or any other in- 
dustries in the country, receive a benefit by the im- 
position of duties upon imported goods under this 
system they are entitled to it, and they are welcome 
to it. It is impossible to impose taxes under any 
system that can be devised without hurting somebody 
or helping somebody ; and for my part — and this is 
the sentiment of my political associates — I would 
rather help them than hurt them. The actual situa- 
tion which now confronts us — a situation which makes 
it the imperative duty of the Representatives of the 
people to reduce the revenues at once — will be best 



274 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

understood from a consideration of the following facts. 

It appears from the official statements that there has 
been, since the ist day of December, 1887, an average 
monthly increase of $11,335,332.15. The surplus ac- 
cumulation each month under the existing system of 
taxation is more than the total cost of the Government 
during the first two years of Washington's admin- 
istration, while the aggregate sum is considerably in 
excess of the whole expenditure of the Government 
during the first eighteen years of its existence under 
the Constitution, including civil and miscellaneous ex- 
penses, War, Navy, Indians, Pensions, and interest on 
the Public Debt. 

Every dollar of this enormous sum has been taken 
by law from the productive industries and commercial 
pursuits of the people at a time when it was sorely 
needed for the successful prosecution of their business, 
and under circumstances which afford no excuse what- 
ever for the exaction. There is not a monarchical 
government in the world, however absolute its form 
or however arbitrary its power, that would dare to 
extort such a tribute from its subjects in excess of 
the proper requirements of the public service : and the 
question which must now be determined is whether 
such a policy can be longer continued here in this 
country where the people are supposed to govern in 
their own right and in their own interest. 

Republican speakers have frequently referred to the 
enormous surplus now in the Treasury as a matter of 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 275 

but little consequence ; and in fact there are some 
who appear to regard it as a blessing, rather than a 
misfortune, that we should have more than $130,000,000 
of the people's money withdrawn from the channels 
of trade and securely locked up in the vaults of the 
Government. I can imagine no financial condition more 
dangerous to the integrity of legislation and the pros- 
perity of the country than that which results from the 
existence of a large surplus in the public Treasury. 
Even if it were possible for such a surplus as we now 
have to accumulate without the imposition of any tax or 
burden upon the people, it would still be, in my 
opinion, a very great misfortune, because the inevitable 
effect would be to encourage useless and extravagant 
appropriations in violation of those principles of public 
economy which are absolutely essential for the preserva- 
tion of a popular government with Constitutional 
limitations upon its powers. 

If there be any serious danger now threatening our 
institutions, it is the growing disposition among those 
who represent particular classes and special interests 
to disregard the checks and break down the barriers 
of the Constitution in a promiscuous scramble for a 
division of the public treasure. Fortunately there is 
in no part of the country any feeling of opposition to 
the proper exercise of public authority, either State or 
Federal. On the contrary, the prevailing tendency is 
toward the enlargement and extension of governmental 
power by construction, especially in matters involving 
the appropriation and expenditure of money. 



276 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

When the Government has collected, or is collecting, 
more money than it needs, the people, realizing the 
injustice of a policy which unnecessarily deprives them 
of a part of their earnings, are almost sure to demand 
its return in some form or other. If the Government 
may rightfully exercise the power of taxation for other 
than public purposes, it is difficult to convince those 
who pay the money that it can not also rightfully 
exercise the power of appropriation for other than 
public purposes. It is safe to say, therefore, that so 
long as this policy shall be continued, not only will 
largesses and bounties for the promotion of purely 
private interests be demanded, but new fields for the 
exercise of legislative power and new objects for the 
appropriation of the public money will be discovered. 

But it is said that we still have outstanding a large 
public debt, and that no great injury can result to the 
country if the present rates of taxation shall be continued 
and the surplus revenue shall be used in the purchase 
of bonds. I agree that so long as we have a surplus 
its application to the extinguishment of the public 
debt is the very best use that can be made of it. 
But I totally dissent from the proposition that it 
would be wise or just to raise a surplus revenue by 
taxation merely for the purpose of purchasing at a 
premium the unmatured bonds of the Government, 
except so far as may be necessary to meet the re- 
quirements of the sinking-fund law ; and I am not 
satisfied that it would not be good policy, if the 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 277 

revenue could be properly reduced, to suspend the 
operation of that law, in whole or in part, for a 
reasonable time. It is not possible to defend, and it 
would be ruinous to perpetuate, a fiscal policy which 
compels the people to pay to the public creditors 
twenty-five cents on the dollar more than the obliga- 
tions of the Government call for ; and yet that is just 
what we are doing and just what we must continue 
to do unless, the revenue is reduced by the passage 
of this or some other bill. 

On the 17th of last April the Secretary of the 
Treasury, in pursuance of authority conferred upon him 
by the law of March, 1 881, as interpreted by the two 
Houses of Congress, issued a circular inviting proposals 
for the sale of bonds to the Government. The first 
purchase was made under this invitation on the 1 8th 
day of April, and within one month from that date 
he purchased, on account of the Government, 4 per 
cent, bonds to the amount of $13,456,500, upon which 
interest had accrued at the date of purchase to the 
amount of $53,172.07. For these bonds he was com- 
pelled to pay the sum of $17,046,136.06, which was 
$3,536,464 more than the principal and accrued in- 
terest, or a premium of 26^ per cent. During the 
same time, and under the same authority, he purchased 
4 J per cent, bonds to the amount of $12,404,450, 
upon which interest had accrued to the amount of 
$108,086.55. For these bonds he paid the sum of 
!$ 1 3,379,188.37, which was $866,652.37 in excess of 



278 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the principal and interest. The premium paid upon 
this class of bonds was nearly 7 per cent. 

This is the situation into which the Government has 
been forced by the failure of Congress in past years 
to make provision for a reduction of taxation. Millions 
of dollars, which ought to have remained in the hands 
of the people who earned the money by their labor 
and by their skill in the prosecution of business, have 
been taken away from them by law, to be paid out 
to the bondholders in excess of their legal demands 
against the Government. In the presence of such a 
situation we can not afford to quarrel about trivial 
details. A reduction of the revenue — not by increasing 
taxation, as some propose, but by diminishing taxation 
in such a manner as will afford the largest measure 
of relief to the people and their industries — should be 
the great and controlling object to which everything 
else should be subordinated. I do not mean that 
every interest, however small and apparently insig- 
nificant, should not be carefully considered in a 
friendly spirit, but I do mean that the general in- 
terests of the many should not be subordinated to 
the special interests of the few. 

Although the question now presented is purely a 
practical one, it necessarily involves, to some extent, a 
discussion of the conflicting theories of taxation which 
have divided the people of this country ever since the 
organization of the Government. There is a funda- 
mental and irreconcilable difference of opinion between 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 279 

those who believe that the power of taxation should 
be used for public purposes only, and that the burdens 
of taxation should be equally distributed among all 
the people according to their ability to bear them, 
and those who believe that it is the right and duty 
of the Government to promote certain private enter- 
prises, and increase the profits of those engaged in 
them, by the imposition of higher rates than are 
necessary to raise revenue for the proper administra- 
tion of public affairs ; and so long as this difference 
exists, or at least so long as the policy of the 
Government is not permanently settled and acquiesced 
in, these conflicting opinions will continue to embarrass 
the representatives of the people in their efforts either 
to increase or reduce taxation. 

While no man in public life would venture to ad- 
vocate excessive taxation merely for the purpose of 
raising excessive revenue, many will advocate it, or 
at least excuse it, when the rates are so adjusted, or 
the objects of taxation are so selected, as to secure 
advantages, or supposed advantages, to some parts of 
the country, or to some classes of industries, over 
other parts and other classes ; and this is the sole 
cause of the difficulties we are now encountering in 
our efforts to relieve the people and reduce the 
surplus. It is the sole cause of the unfortunate delay 
that has already occurred in the revision of our 
revenue laws, and if the bill now pending shall be 
defeated, and disaster in any form shall come upon 



280 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the country by reason of overtaxation and an ac- 
cumulation of money in the Treasury, this unjust 
feature in our present system will be responsible for it. 

Whenever an attempt is made to emancipate labor 
from the servitude which an unequal system of taxa- 
tion imposes upon it ; whenever it is proposed to 
secure, as far as possible, to each individual citizen 
the full fruits of his own earnings, subject only to 
the actual necessities of the Government, and when- 
ever a measure is presented for the removal of un- 
necessary restrictions from domestic industries and in- 
ternational commerce, so as to permit freer produc- 
tion and freer exchanges, the alarm is sounded and 
all the cohorts- of monopoly are assembled to hear 
their heralds proclaim the immediate and irretrievable 
ruin of the country. 

We have been told, over and over again, that the 
reduction of the tariff on imports will destroy many 
valuable industries now flourishing in various parts of 
the country ; that it will deprive thousands of laborers 
of employment and greatly reduce the wages of those 
who continue to work. If I believed that a reduction 
of duties would injure a single honest industry, or 
reduce the wages of those who are employed in it, I 
would, notwithstanding the great emergency which 
confronts us, hesitate long before advocating such a 
measure. But in my opinion reasonable reductions on 
dutiable imports, and very considerable additions to the 
free list, will be beneficial to the manufacturers them- 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 28 1 

selves as well as to their laborers and the consumers 
of their products. It may not be inappropriate in this 
connection to call attention to a few historical facts 
connected with our tariff legislation in the past and 
the effects of low rates of duty upon the prosperity 
of the people. The highest rates of duty imposed by 
the tariff act of 1846 upon any class of woolen goods, 
cotton fabrics, manufactures of leather and of hard- 
ware, was 30 per cent, ad valorem, and upon most 
kinds of cotton goods it was only 25 per cent. These 
were the industries in which New England was most 
largely engaged, and her Representatives in Congress, 
except those from the State of Maine, who were 
divided upon the question, protested against the passage 
of that act, upon the ground that it would paralyze 
and ruin these great interests. The Representatives 
from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New 
Hampshire, and Vermont voted unanimously against 
the bill, with the exception of Mr. Collamer, of Ver- 
mont, who did* not vote at all. But it passed, never- 
theless, and became a law ; and now let us see what 
its effect was upon the most important industries of 
these great manufacturing States, and what the sub- 
sequent action of their Representatives was, after an 
experience of eleven years under these moderate rates 
of duty. 

We have no authentic statistics showing the progress 
made by manufacturing industries between 1846 and 
1857 as a separate and distinct period of time, but it 
17 



282 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

may be fairly assumed that the full force and effect 
of the new rates of duty were realized at least as 
early as the census year 1849, and we have the 
census returns of 1850 and i860, the latter based 
upon the productions of the year 1859, to which I 
invite the attention of those who believe that low 
tariffs destroy manufactures and pauperize labor. During 
the period mentioned, the value of all our woolen 
manufactures increased more than 42 per cent., the 
number of hands employed increased 18^ per cent.. 
but the total amount of wages paid increased nearly 
37 per cent., showing that the percentage of increase 
in the amount of wages paid was twice as great as 
the percentage of increase in the number of hands 
employed. Taking all the New England States together, 
the increase in the value of the product in this in- 
dustry was 62 per cent. The increase in Massachu- 
setts was 54 per cent.; in Rhode Island, 176 per 
cent. ; in Vermont, 61 \ per cent., and in Maine, 83 \ 
per cent. In the manufacture of hosiery the progress 
during the ten years under consideration was almost 
marvelous. In the Eastern States the increase in the 
value of the product was 481 per cent. It was 523 
per cent, in Connecticut, 377 per cent, in New 
Hampshire, and 373 per cent, in Massachusetts. 

What was the effect upon the manufacture of cotton 
fabrics in New England and in the whole country ? 
The value of the production in the United States 
increased 77 per cent., the number of hands employed 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 283 

increased 28J per cent., and the total amount of 
wages paid increased 39 per cent In New England 
the increase in the value of the product was over 81 
per cent., in the number of hands employed 28 per 
cent., and in the amount of wages paid 36 per cent. 
Massachusetts increased her product yj per cent., New 
Hampshire 55 per cent., Rhode Island over 87 per 
cent., Connecticut 116 per cent., Maine 137 per cent., 
and Vermont 27! per cent. 

In the six New England States the increase in the 
value of the product in the manufacture of boots and 
shoes was 83 per cent. In Massachusetts the increase 
was 92 per cent., in Connecticut 10 per cent., in 
Maine 99 per cent., and in Rhode Island 337 per 
cent. The production in New England alone in i860 
was greater than the aggregate production of all the 
States of the Union in 1850. In the manufacture of 
hardware New England increased the value of her 
product 100 per cent., and in this industry also her 
product in i860 was greater than the product of all 
the States in 1850. 

Instead of paralyzing the industries and pauperizing 
labor in New England, or any other part of the 
country for that matter, the tariff act of 1846 infused 
new life and vigor into our languishing manufactures 
and secured more constant employment and higher 
wages to our laboring people ; and the consequence 
was that even the strong prejudices of New England 
were removed by actual experience, and in 1857 every 



284 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Representative from that part of the country who voted 
at all voted for a bill making an almost uniform re- 
duction of 20 per cent, from the rates imposed by 
the act of 1846 and placing many additional articles 
on the free list. 

I allude to the vote upon the tariff act of 1857, as 
it first passed the House, a Republican House over 
which Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, presided 
as Speaker. Five of the six Representatives from 
Maine voted for it, and the other one, who was absent 
when the vote was taken, had made a speech in favor 
of its passage. Nine of the ten Representatives from 
Massachusetts voted in the affirmative, and the other 
was in the chair and did not vote. Every Representa- 
tive from New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and 
Rhode Island was present and voted for the bill, and 
among them appears the name of the venerable and 
distinguished Senator who still serves his State in the 
United States Senate — Hon. Justin S. Morrill. 

The bill to which I have referred was sent to the 
Senate, where it was amended by making a very slight 
increase in the reduction on certain articles, and, 
finally, upon agreeing to the conference report, 
eighteen Representatives from New England voted in 
the affirmative and nine in the negative. Two-thirds 
of the men chosen by the people of New England to 
represent their interests in Congress declared by this 
vote that a further reduction would be beneficial to 
their industries, and thus the tariff act of 1857, which 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 285 

we have so often heard denounced by our opponents, 
became the law of the land by the votes of Re- 
publican and New England Representatives. 

These Representatives of the greatest manufacturing 
section of the country had seen their industries grow 
and prosper as they had never grown and prospered 
before ; they had seen capital realizing adequate 
returns upon its investment ; they had seen the num- 
ber of laborers employed constantly increasing and 
the rates of wages continually rising, and they had 
seen at the same time the agricultural and com- 
mercial interests of the people in all parts of the 
country flourishing to an extent which the wildest 
enthusiast had scarcely dreamed of before. All these 
things they had seen ; but there are other things with 
which we have grown perfectly familiar in these times 
of high tariff and class legislation which they did not 
see. They did not see great monopolies and trusts 
created to limit the supply and control the prices 
of the necessaries of life. They did not see enormous 
fortunes accumulated in a few years by corporations 
and individuals engaged in favored industries, while 
the great mass of the people were struggling hard 
to live comfortably and pay their taxes ; nor did they 
see, at any time during that period, as we have seen 
thousands of honest laborers parading the streets of 
our cities clamoring for work, or assembling around 
our mines and factories with a hired police to watch 
them. 



286 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

This was the experience of the Representatives 
from the New England States during the eleven years 
from 1846 to 1857, under a low tariff; and is it any 
wonder that by a unanimous vote they demanded a 
still further reduction in the interest of the manu- 
facturers ? 

If space would permit I would quote some of the 
opinions delivered by the leading representatives of 
our manufacturing interests during the debate upon 
the tariff act of 1857, but I will content myself with 
a few short extracts from the speech of Henry Wilson, 
of Massachusetts, afterwards Vice-President of the 
United States, a gentleman who perhaps understood 
as throughly as any one the real condition and ne- 
cessities of his constituents. Among other things he 
said : 

" The manufacturers, Mr. Chairman, make no war 
upon the wool growers. They assume that the reduc- 
tion of the duty on wool, or repeal of the duty alto- 
gether, will infuse vigor into that drooping interest, 
stimulate home production and diminish the importa- 
tion of foreign woolen manufacturers, and afford a 
steady and increasing demand for American wool. 
They believe this policy will be more beneficial to the 
wool-growers, to the agricultural interests, than the 
present policy. The manufacturers of woolen fabrics, 
many of them of large experience and extensive 
knowledge, entertain these views, and they are sus- 
tained in these opinions by the experience of the 
great manufacturing nations of the Old World. 

"Since the reductions of duties on raw materials in 
England, since wool was admitted free, her woolen 
manufacturers have so increased, so prospered, that the 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 287 

production of native wool increased more than 100 
per cent. The experience of England, France, and 
Belgium demonstrates the wisdom of that policy which 
makes the raw material duty free. Let us profit by 
their example." 

When this speech was delivered wool had been 

admitted free of duty in England for a period of 

less than thirteen years, and yet the testimony of 

this distinguished New England Senator was that it 

had already doubled the product of native wool in 

that country. In the same speech he said further : 

"If our manufactures are to increase, to keep pace 
with the population and the growing wants of our 
people ; if we are to have the control of the markets 
of our own country ; if we to are meet with and compete 
with the manufacturers of England and other nations 
of western Europe in the markets of the world, we 
must have our raw materials admitted duty free or 
at a merely nominal rate. 

* * * ■* #■ •* * 

" We of New England believe that wool, especially 
the cheap wools, manilla, hemp, flax, raw silk, lead, 
tin, brass, hides, linseed, and many other articles 
used in our manufactories can be admitted duty free, 
or for a merely nominal duty, without injuring to any 
extent any considerable interest of the country." 

Further on he said : 

"In closing, Mr. Chairman, the remarks I have felt 
it my duty to submit to the Senate and the country, 
that the Commonwealth I represent on this floor — I 
say in part, for my colleague, Mr. Sumner, after an 
enforced absence of more than nine months, is here 
to-night to give his vote, if he can raise his voice 
for the interest of his State — has a deep interest in 
the modification of the tariff of 1846 by this Congress. 
Her merchants, manufacturers, mechanics and business 



288 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

men in all departments of a varied industry want 
action now before the Thirty-fourth Congress passes 
away. 

" They are for the reduction of the revenue to the 
actual wants of an economical administration of the 
Government ; for the depletion of the Treasury, now 
full with millions of hoarded gold ; for a free list 
embracing articles of prime necessity we do not pro- 
duce ; for mere nominal duties on articles which make 
up a large portion of our domestic industry, and for 
such an adjustment of the duties on the productions 
of other nations that come in direct competition 
with the product of American capital, labor and skill 
as shall impose the least burdens on that capital, la- 
bor and skill." 

In the same debate Mr. Morrill, of Vermont, said : 
" On Sheffield hardware, such as cutlery, edged 
tools, files, and saws, some protection is needed a little 
longer, but for this 20 per cent, is ample ; and upon 
all other kinds 10 per cent., I feel quite sure, is 
fully sufficient." 

The present duty on cutlery is 50 per cent., just 
two and a half times the amount which Mr. Morrill 
said was fully sufficient more than thirty-one years 
ago. On files the duty now runs from 52 to 65 per 
cent., an average of three times the rate specified by 
Mr. Morrill, and on other hardware is now three times 
what he thought was necessary. 

It is customary in all debates on the tariff for the 
opponents of the Democratic party to depict in the 
darkest colors the condition of the country during 
the financial depression of 1857. That depression, 
from which the country recovered in l a few months, 
was an insignificant incident in our history in com- 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 289 

parison with the great industrial, commercial and finan- 
cial storm which began here in 1873 and devastated 
the country for five years, closing mills and factories, 
extinguishing the fires in our furnaces, ruining bank- 
ing and mercantile houses, and throwing hundreds of 
thousands of laboring people out of employment. 
Under a low tariff our industries soon revived and 
the country started again, like an awakened giant on 
its march to wealth and power, but under a high 
tariff it struggled on for five weary years, and for 
the first time in its history was brought face to face 
with those difficult and dangerous social problems 
which still confront us, and which it will require all 
the wisdom and patriotism of her ablest and best cit- 
izens, to solve. 

It has been repeatedly charged that the credit of 
the Government was so reduced by the act of 1857 
that it was compelled to sell its bonds at a discount 
of 12 per cent. 

In a volume issued from the Treasury Department 
in 1 88 1, while Mr. Windom was Secretary, the history 
of all the loans negotiated from the time of its or- 
ganization to the date of its publication is given ; 
and this account, taken from the official records, shows 
that from the time of the passage of the tariff act 
of 1846 until near the close of Mr. Buchanan's ad- 
ministration, when civil war was imminent, not a bond 
or Treasury note, or Government obligation in any form, 
was sold at less than par, while many of them hav- 



290 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ing but a short time to run, and bearing but five 
per cent, interest, were sold at a very considerable 
premium in gold. 

After the passage of the Morrill tariff bill, in 
•March, 1861, and after the Democratic administration 
had gone out and a Republican administration had 
come in, twenty-year bonds, bearing 6 per cent, inter- 
est were sold at 15 per cent, discount. But would 
it be fair to charge this to the high tariff of 1 861 ? 
Would it be fair for me to say that these bonds 
were sold at a discount because the rates of duty on 
imported goods had been increased by the act of 
March 2, 1861 ? The truth is that the credit of the 
Government was always good until the breaking out of 
the civil war, or . at least until it became evident that 
there was to be a great civil commotion in this country. 
But I have already devoted too much space to this part 
of the subject. My only excuse for it is there has 
been so much misunderstanding or misrepresentation con- 
cerning the history of what our opponents call the " free- 
trade " period, that it seemed necessary to make some 
allusion to it. 

During the last fiscal year the average rate of duty 
upon dutiable imports was about $48 upon each $100 
worth of goods, and the revenue collected from that 
source was more than $212,000,000. During the same 
time the Government collected about $119,000,000 
under the internal-revenue laws, nearly all of which 
came from the taxes on distilled spirits, fermented 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 29 1 

liquors, and manufactured tobacco. In the fiscal year 
1866, which was the first entire fiscal year after the 
close of the war, the receipts from internal-revenue 
taxes amounted to nearly $311,000,000, while the receipts 
from customs or tariff taxes, amounted to $179,000,000, 
and the rate upon dutiable goods was $40.19 upon each 
$100 worth. 

This brief statement shows that while the receipts 
from customs have largely increased, the receipts under 
the internal-revenue laws have been greatly dimin- 
ished, and that the taxes imposed by those laws are 
now collected from a few articles of luxury, or of 
taste, the use of which could be almost, if not en- 
tirely dispensed with without injury to the people. 
There are many who believe, in view of the large 
reductions heretofore made in the internal-revenue 
taxes, and in view of the fact that they are now 
imposed upon articles of necessity, that the whole 
reduction now so much needed, and so urgently de- 
manded by the country, should be accomplished by 
the revision of the tariff laws ; but the Democratic 
majority in Congress recognizing and respecting the 
differences of opinion which exist upon this question, 
has proposed to deal with both systems of taxation. 
It proposes to make a reduction of $78,000,000 based 
upon the receipts of the fiscal year 1887. About $54, 
000,000 of this is proposed to be taken from the 
tariff taxes and about $24,000,000 from the internal- 
revenue receipts by the repeal of the tax on tabacco 



292 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

and the abolition of certain special taxes upon dealers 
and others. 

The opposition to this plan has been directed 
mainly against that part of it which proposes to re- 
peal or reduce the tax upon certain classes of im- 
ported goods ; and gentlemen, speaking for the inter- 
ests which have long ago been relieved of all the 
burdens imposed upon their industries, earnestly pro- 
test that the consumers of their products shall have 
little or no relief. In 1866 there was collected from 
the incomes of those having net annual receipts 
exceeding $600 the sum of $72,982,159, and from 
manufacturers and their products, excluding distilled 
spirits, fermented liquors, and tobacco, the sum of 
$127,230,609. Every vestige of this enormous burden 
upon our manufacturing industries has been removed, 
and properly removed, but the high rates of duty 
imposed on imported goods, to compensate for this 
domestic taxation, have not been removed. It was a 
very great mistake, to say the least, that they were 
not both removed at the same time, for after having 
afforded relief to one side it seems almost impossible 
to secure relief for the other. There never was a time 
while these heavy internal taxes remained upon their 
products that the manufacturers would not have been 
glad to surrender a large part of the tariff duties in 
order to secure a removal of the charges upon their 
industries. In 1867 Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, who was 
doubtless familiar with the views of those engaged in 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 293 

manufacturing industries, said in a speech in the 

Senate : 

" Every law imposing a duty on imported goods is 
necessarily a restraint on trade. It imposes a burden 
upon the purchase and sale of imported goods and 
tends to prevent their importation. The expression 
a free-trade tariff involves an absurdity. " 

Again he says : 

" Every duty on imported merchandise gives to the 
domestic manufacturer an advantage, equal to the duty, 
and to that extent every tariff is a protective tariff." 

Again he said on this particular point : 

" If you converse with intelligent men engaged in the 
business of manufacturing they will tell you that 
they are willing to compete with England, France, 
Germany, and all the countries of Europe at the old 
rates of duty. If you reduce their products to a 
specie basis, and put them on the same footing 
they were on before the war, the present rates of 
duty would be too high. It would not be necessary 
for scarce any branch of industry to be protected to 
the extent of your present tariff law. They do not 
ask protection against the pauper labor of Europe, but 
they ask protection against the creation of your own 
laws." 

He referred to the internal-revenue laws and the 

paper currency. All the internal-revenue laws of which 

the manufacturers then complained have been long 

since abolished. The business of the country is now, 

and has been for many years, conducted upon a 

specie basis, and I submit that the great body of 

consumers in this country, the men and women who 

toil in the unprotected industries, have a right now 

to demand that their claims for relief shall be con- 



294 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

sidered in any measure that may be passed for the 
reduction of the revenue. 

In a speech delivered in the Senate in 1872 upon 
this same general subject, Mr. Sherman repeated sub- 
stantially the same views. 

He said : 

It must be remembered that the present duties, 
taken together, are far in excess of what they were 
before the war, and that they have been three times 
largely increased since the passage of the Morrill tariff 
Act in 1861. 

The result of such duties is to secure to mechan- 
ical industries higher wages than can be earned in 
other kindred employments. Such excessive protection 
not only ceases to diversify production, but forces 
labor into protected employments. If the present 
rate of duty were high enough during and since the 
war, when home industry was burdened with heavy 
internal taxes — with stamp duties, income taxes, and 
high rates on raw materials — then surely they are now 
too high when all these taxes are removed. I 
have listened with patience, day by day, to the 
statements of gentlemen who are interested in our 
domestic productions. I am a firm believer in the 
general idea of protecting their' industries, but I as- 
sure them, as I assure their representatives here, that 
if the present high rates of duty, unexampled in our 
country, and higher by nearly 50 per cent, than they were 
in 1 86 1, are maintained on metallic and textile fabrics 
after we have repealed the very internal taxes which 
gave rise to them, and after we have substantially 
given them their* raw materials free of duties, we 
shall have a feeling of dissatisfaction among other 
interests in the country that will overthrow the whole 
system, and do greater harm than can possibly be 
done by a moderate reduction of the present rates of 
duty. And I am quite sure intelligent men engaged 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 295 

in the production of various forms of textile and 
metallic fabrics feel as I do, that it is wiser and 
better to do what is just and right, to make a re- 
duction on their products, at least to the extent of 
the reduction in this bill on their raw materials,, 
rather than to invite a controversy in which I believe 
they will be in the wrong." 

And he also said this, to which I desire to call the 

particular attention of those who differ from me upon 

the principles which ought to govern taxation in this 

country : 

"The public mind is not yet prepared to apply the 
key to a genuine revenue reform. A few years of fur- 
ther experience will convince the whole body of our 
people that a system of national taxes which rests the 
whole burden of taxation on consumption and not one 
one cent on property or income is intrinsically unjust. 
While the expenses of the National Government are 
largely caused by the protection of property, it is but 
right to require property to contribute to their payment. 
It will not do to say that each person consumes in pro- 
portion to his means. This is not true. Every one 
must see that the consumption of the rich does not 
bear the same relation to the consumption of the poor 
as the income of the one to the wages of the other. 
As wealth accumulutes this injustice in the fundamental 
basis of our system will be felt and forced upon the at- 
tention of Congress." 

It seems that our opponents have at last concluded 
that there ought to be a reduction of the revenue, 
and some of them have foreshadowed their policy. Its 
main feature — in fact about its only feature as re- 
gards the tariff — is the total repeal of the duty on 
sugar and the payment of a bounty to the producers 
of that article ; not to the laborer who tills the soil 



296 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

and converts the cane-juice into sugar, but to the 
capitalist who owns the plantation and the refinery. 
After all their professions of love for the laborer, 
after all their arguments to show that labor receives 
the benefit of the tariff, and after all their harrowing 
description of the deplorable condition to which our 
laboring classes would be reduced if the tariff were 
removed, when they come to put their propositions 
in the the form of practical legislation the mask falls 
off and the natural features of the system are ex- 
posed. 

But what would be the effect of the repeal of the 
duty on sugar — the effect upon revenue and the peo- 
ple who are compelled to pay taxes in some form 
for the support of the Government ? 

The latest reports, I have at hand showing the total 
amount of sugar produced in this country and the total 
amount consumed, are for the year 1886, and from them 
it appears that the domestic production was 302,754,48(1 
pounds, while the total consumption was 3,111,640,000 
pounds. It is thus shown that considerably less than 
one-tenth of the domestic consumption is produced at 
home, and that the remainder is imported and pays 
duty at the custom-house. The duty collected during 
the last fiscal year was $57,000,000 Assuming that 
the whole amount of the duty is added to the price 
of the domestic article, it is clear that whenever $1 
is taken out of the pocket of the consumer on account 
of this increased price more than $10 are paid into 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 297 

the public Treasury for the support of the Government 
and the discharge of its obligations. The repeal of this 
duty, therefore, while it would undoubtedly reduce the 
revenue, would afford very little relief to the people in 
comparison with the relief that would be afforded by 
the repeal of duties upon many other articles in 
common use. For instance, the duty collected last year 
upon woolen goods, cotton goods and iron and steel 
was $62,000,000 ; but this was a very small proportion 
of the burden actually imposed upon the consumers of 
these articles. According to the last report of the 
American Iron and Steel Association there were pro- 
duced in this country during the year 1887, 2,354,130 
gross tons of Bessemer-steel rails. The duty upon this 
article is $17 per ton. Applying the same rule to this 
article which I have applied to sugar, that is, that the 
whole amount of the duty is added to the price of 
the domestic product, it is easy to see that the increased 
cost of steel rails alone to the people of this country in 
1887 was over $40,000,000, although the Government 
received only about $1,000,000 revenue from this source. 
The proposition to pay a bounty of two cents per 
pound out of the Treasury to the sugar-grower is a 
confession of all that has been charged against the 
present system of tariff taxation. It is a confession 
that the tariff tax is a bounty to the manufacturer 
or other producers of the domestic article of the 
same character as the imported article, and it is a 

confession that the amount of the duty on the foreign 
18 



298 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

product is added to the price of the domestic one; 
for if these charges be not true there is no sem- 
blance of justice or propriety in the proposition to 
pay a bounty of two cents per pound as a compensa- 
tion for the repeal of the duty. 

I am just as' much opposed to the raising of a 
fund by taxation for the purpose of paying a bounty 
to the sugar-growers of Louisiana as I would be if 
it were to be paid to" the cotton-growers of Georgia 
or the wheat-growers of Minnesota. It is a vicious 
and demoralizing policy, and can never become per- 
manent in this country. Those who desire to extend 
relief to the producers of sugar, and at the same 
time help all the other people of the country should 
propose to reduce or repeal the taxes upon the iron 
and steel implements used in the cultivation of the 
soil ; upon the machinery employed in the preparation 
of their crops for the market ; upon the materials used 
in the construction of their buildings, and upon the 
clothing which they and their families and laborers 
are compelled to wear. This would be a general and 
not a partial measure of relief, and would be credi- 
table to a great political party which seeks to govern 
the whole country. The people who are interested in 
the production of sugar can neither be bribed nor 
deceived by the offer of a bounty, for they know 
that their fellow-citizens engaged in other pursuits will 
not consent to be taxed for any great length of time 
for any such purpose. 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 299 

It has been stubbornly contended that high rates 
of duty upon imported goods are beneficial to the 
great body of consumers because such duties, instead 
of increasing the prices of the domestic articles of 
the same kind actually reduce the prices. If this be 
true, all the other arguments in support of the exist- 
ing system are not only superfluous, but manifestly 
unsound. The proposition that a high tariff enables 
the producer to pay higher wages for his labor, and 
the proposition that it also reduces the prices of the 
articles he has to sell, which are the products of that 
labor, are utterly inconsistent with each other, and 
no ingenuity of the ^casuist can possible reconcile 
them. Labor is paid out of its own product, and un- 
less that product can be sold for a price which will 
enable the employer to realize a reasonable profit and 
pay the established rates of wages, the businsss must 
cease or the rates of wages must be reduced. When 
the price of the finished product is reduced by rea- 
son of the increased efficiency of labor, or by reason 
of the reduced cost of the raw material, the employer 
may continue to pay the same or even a higher 
rate of wages and still make his usual profits. But 
the tariff neither increases the efficiency of labor nor 
reduces the cost of the raw material. 

I do not deny that prices have greatly fallen during 
the last fifteen years, not only in this country, but 
all over the civilized world — in free-trade countries 
as well as in protectionist countries. Nor do I deny 



30O THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

that during the same time the general tendency has 
been towards an increase in the rates of wages; and 
this is true also of all civilized countries, free-trade 
and protection alike. It is not possible for me here 
to enumerate, much less discuss, all the causes, that 
have contributed to these results. One of the most 
efficient causes, in the fact the most efficient cause, 
is- the combination of skilled labor with machinery in 
the production of commodities. The introduction and 
Use of improved machinery has wrought a complete 
revolution in nearly all our manufacturing industries, 
and in many cases has enabled one man to do the 
work which it required one hundred men to do before. 
I have before me a statement furnished by the United 
States Commissioner of Labor to the Chairman of the 
Committee on Ways and Means, showing the value of 
the product of a week's labor combined with ma- 
chinery in the same industry. In 1813 one man, 
working sixty hours, by hand could turn out 3 
pounds of cotton yarn, worth $2.25, or 75 cents per 
pound ; now the same man, if he were living, could 
turn out in sixty hours with the use of machinery 
3,000 pounds of cotton yarn of the same character, 
worth $450 or 15 cents per pound. The cotton-spinner 
now receives as wages for his week's work more than 
three times as much as the total value of the product of 
a week's work, including the value of the material in 
1 81 3 ; and yet labor is far cheaper to the employer 
now than it was then. Although the employer now 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 30I 

receives only one-fifth as much per pound for his cotton 
yarn as he did in 181 3, he realizies from the sale of 
the products of a week's labor just two hundred times 
as much as he did then. 

Another statement prepared by the same official 
shows the relative production and value of product of 
a weaver using hand and power machinery, from 
which it appears that a weaver by hand turned out 
in seventy-two hours, in 181 3, 5 yards of cotton goods 
(shirtings), worth $17.91, while a weaver now, using 
machinery, turns out in sixty hours 1440 yards, worth 
$108. Substantially the same exhibit could be made 
in regard to a very large number of our manufactur- 
ing industries. Is it strange, in view of these facts, 
that the prices of manufactured goods have fallen or 
that the wages of the laborers who produce them 
have risen ? Is it not, on the contrary, remarkable 
that there has not been a greater fall in prices and 
a greater increase in wages ? Undoubtedly there would 
have been a greater reduction in prices and a greater 
increase in wages if there had been a wider market 
for the products and a lower cost for the material. 
The tremendous productive forces at work all over 
the world in these modern times, and the small cost 
of manual labor in comparison with the value of the 
products of these combined forces, can not be realized 
from any general statement upon the subject. In order 
to form some idea of the magnitude of these natural 
and mechanical forces, and the efficiency of manual 



302 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

labor and skill when connected with them, let us look 
at the situation in. six of our own manufacturing 
industries. In the manufacture of cotton goods, woolen 
goods, iron and steel, sawed lumber, paper, and in 
our flouring and grist mills, there were employed, 
according to the latest statistics, 517,299 persons, not 
all men, but many of them women and children. 
This labor was supplemented by steam and water power 
equal to 2,496,299 horse-power. This is equal to the 
power of 14,977,794 men ; and thus we find that a 
little over 517,000 persons of all ages and sexes are 
performing, in connection with steam and water power, 
the work of 15,495,093 adult and healthy men. 

The railroad, the steam-vessel, the telegraph, the 
improved facilities for the conduct of financial transac- 
tions, and many other conveniences introduced into 
our modern systems of production and distribution and 
exchange, have all contributed their share towards the 
reduction of prices, and it would be interesting to 
inquire what their influence has been, if space would 
permit. 

Protectionists are in the habit of referring to the 
great decline in the price of steel rails in this country 
as conclusive evidence of the facts that the tariff 
reduces the cost of manufactured products to the con- 
sumer. They could not, in my opinion, have selected 
a more unfortunate illustration. In the first place, the 
price of steel rails has fallen all over the world and 
especially in England, where they are and always have 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 303 

been admitted free of duty. The price there is now 
and has at all times been much lower than here. In 
the second place, the price was falling rapidly both 
here and in England before the imposition of the duty 
of $28 per ton* by act of Congress in 1870. During 
the five years next preceding the imposition of that 
duty the price in England had fallen steadily, year by 
year, and had declined from $85.65 per ton to $50.37 
per ton ; and in the United States the same process 
had been going on, and the price had fallen from 
$148.50 per ton in gold in 1864, to $91.17 in 1870. 
Then the increased duty was imposed, and what was 
the result ? The price immediately began to raise, both 
here and in England, so that in 1873 the average price 
in England was $80.05 P er ton, and the average price 
here was $103.91 per ton in gold. Then came, in the 
fall of that year, the great industrial and financial de- 
pression which arrested the growth and development 
of the country, suspended the construction of works of 
internal improvement, paralyzed our industries, and 
brought down the prices of nearly everything that the 
people produced. Steel rails, of course, like all other 
manufactured products, felt the influence of this depres- 
sion, and the price declined and has never since been 
as high as it was before. 

But, we are told that a tariff is beneficial to the 
farmer because, first, it protects him against competi- 
tion from the agricultural products of other countries, 
and, secondly, because, by diversifying our industries 



304 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

and increasing the number of persons engaged in other 
than agricultural pursuits, it furnishes him with a profit- 
able home market for his products. It can not be 
necessary for me to make an argument to show that no 
rate of duty, however high, upon articles which the 
farmer is compelled to send abroad and sell at foreign 
prices, can possibly benefit him here at home or else- 
where. This has been so often shown, and is so 
thoroughly understood by the farmers themselves, that 
it would be a waste of time to dwell upon the subject. 

It is barely possible that at particular points along or 
near our Canadian border there are times when the 
small duty on barley, potatoes, hay, and a few other 
articles prevents competition from the other side of the 
line ; but if our opponents are correct in their conten- 
tion that the tariff does not increase the prices of 
the domestic product, of course this is of no advantage 
whatever to the American farmer. In fact, according 
to that argument, if the tariff has any effect at all 
upon the interest of the farmer in the cases I have 
mentioned, it reduces the price of his product, and is 
therefore an injury to him. 

But I do not agree with them, and I concede that 
the producer of these articles at the places indicated 
may occasionally receive higher prices for them than 
he would receive if there were no duty ; but while 
they receive this occasional benefit — which is a very 
slight one even when they enjoy it — they are all the 
time and under all circumstances subject to the burdens 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 305 

imposed by high rates of duty upon articles which 
they do not produce but are compelled to buy and 
use. When the advantages are set off against the dis- 
advantages, the benefits against the burdens, the 
balance will be very largely on the wrong side. Of 
course our home market has been constantly improving, 
and under any system of taxation will continue to 
improve, to a greater or less extent, with the increase 
of population and wealth, the extension of the use of 
machinery, which reduces the cost of production, and 
the multiplication of facilities for communication and 
transportation, which reduces the cost of distribution. 
But how long are our farmers to be compelled to pay 
tribute to other industries and wait for the creating of 
a home market that will take all their own products 
at fair prices ? Among our greatest agricultural pro- 
ducts are wheat and cotton. They constitute the 
main reliance of millions of our people for a profitable 
use of their lands, and many hundred millions of 
dollars are invested in the soil and buildings and 
machinery devoted to their production. Taking the 
average crop of wheat in this country for several 
years past, and assuming that there shall be no in- 
crease whatever in production, and that the domestic 
consumption per capita shall remain just at what it 
now is, there would still be no sufficient home market 
for this great agriculture staple until our population 
had reached nearly one hundred million. The official 
statistics of the domestic production, exportation, and 



306 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

home consumption of raw cotton show that it would 
require three times as much machinery and three times 
as many operatives as we now have to convert this 
material into commercial fabrics here at home ; in 
other words, we are now compelled to export two- 
thirds of our product to be manufactured in foreign 
countries, while one-third only is manufactured at home 
by all the machinery and labor now employed. 

In 1880 there were $219,505 invested in cotton manu- 
factures, and there were employed in that industry 
172,554 hands. To work up our present production of 
raw cotton would require an investment in this manu- 
facture of $660,000,000 and the employment of 517,662 
hands. If we have been more than, one hundred years, 
part of the time under very high tariffs, in so develop- 
ing our cotton manufactures as to enable them to take 
one-third of our product at European prices, how many 
centuries will be required to enable them to consume 
the whole product at prices fixed by competition here 
at home ? When this problem has been solved to the 
satisfaction of the American cotton-grower, he may 
listen with patience to the arguments by which pro- 
tectionists attempt to convince him of the immense 
advantages of a home market that will never exist. 
What is to be done with these great agricultural 
products, and with many others which are now ex- 
ported, while the farmers are waiting for the home 
market which the advocates of restrictive legislation 
have been promising them for so many years ? Are 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 307 

the farmers and planters of the North and South to 
abandon their wheat and cotton lands, or cultivate 
crops not suited to their soil or climate, while theor- 
ists are making experiments to ascertain whether or 
not a home market may not be created by legisla- 
tion ? They cannot wait, and no matter what pro- 
tectionists may predict or what they may promise 
these great industries must go on, and the American 
farmer must sell his products at any market he can 
reach and at any price he can get. 

While admitting that the prices of our exportable 
agricultural products are fixed in the foreign markets 
in which they are sold, it has been contended by some 
that the prices in the foreign market are regulated 
by the amount of production here. Undoubtedly the 
amount of production here has some influence upon 
the prices abroad, but the controlling elements are 
the world's supply and the world's demands. Our 
farmers do not compete among themselves alone in 
the provision markets of Europe. Our wheat-growers, 
for instance, compete with the wheat growers of Eng- 
land, France, Germany, Russia, Hungary, India, and 
all the other grain-growers of Europe and Asia, and 
their product meets in the open and free markets of 
the world the products of the poorest-paid labor on 
the face of the earth. 

The lately-emancipated serfs of Russia ; the oppressed 
peasantry of Hungary ; the ryot of India, who lives 
on millet and rice, wears no garment except a coarse 



308 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

cotton shirt, and sleeps on the floor of a bamboo 
hut — all pour the products of their labor into the 
free markets of Europe to be sold in competition 
with the grain from our Western States and Terri- 
tories. Our agriculturists are not ignorant of the 
true situation. They know very well that as to all 
the articles which we are capable of exporting and are 
actually exporting — and this includes all the principal 
productions of their industry — the foreign market is 
just as valuable to them as the home market, for the 
obvious reason that the prices are fixed abroad, and 
they receive here only what they could receive there, 
after deducting the cost of transportation. 

What the American farmer most needs is a home 
market in which he can purchase his supplies as 
cheaply as his competitors purchase theirs ; and if he 
• cannot secure this, then he simply asks the poor 
privilege of making his purchases where he is com- 
pelled to make his sales, and to be permitted to 
bring his goods home without being compelled to 
pay unreasonable taxes and fines by his Government 
for carrying on a harmless and legitimate business. 

We want not only the home market, but all the 
markets of the world for the varied products of this 
great country. We want to send our agricultural pro- 
ducts, our cotton, and our breadstuffs and our provis- 
ions to the naked and hungry manufacturing peoples 
of Europe, and our manufactured products to the ag- 
ricultural people of South America, Mexico, and Asia. 



THE NATIONAL REVENUES. 309 

We can do this when we determine to trade with 
other people upon fair terms, but we cannot do it so 
long as we protect England and other manufacturing 
countries in the grest markets of the world upon the 
pretense of protecting ourselves in our own. Let us 
diminish the cost of production in our agricultural 
and manufacturing industries, not by diminishing the 
wages of labor, but by reducing taxation upon the 
necessaries of life and upon the materials which con- 
stitute the basis of our finished products, and by re- 
moving, as far as we can, the restrictions which em- 
barrass our people in their efforts to exchange the 
fruits of their own toil which they do not need for 
the commodities of other countries which they do 
need. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 



Hon. William L. Trenholm, 
Comptroller of the Currency. 

T^ROM the beginning, when its adherents called them- 
selves Republicans, the Democratic Party, so named 
by its enemies in derision, has been the Party of the 
people. 

Its constant aim has been to protect and defend the 
rights, to promote the welfare and happiness of the 
whole people ; its steadfast dependence has been upon 
the people united in support of interests common to 
all. Hence it is a cardinal principle of Democracy to 
oppose whatever tends to divide the people into classes, 
to array one fraction of the population against another 
fraction, or to create or multiply conflicting interests or 
competing occupations. A divided people is at the mercy 
of demagogues and schemers — only in union is there 
strength. The spirit of Democracy is hostile to State 
or Federal legislation which directly or indirectly gives 
to particular classes or sections, or to those who are 
engaged in particular industries or occupations, any 
preference or advantage over their fellow citizens of 

other classes, other sections or other employments ; it 
(3io) 




WILLIAM L. TRENHOLM. 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 313 

is jealous of entangling alliances between the Govern- 
ment and corporations or other organizations of monop- 
olistic tendencies ; it is averse to the growth of mutual 
relations between the Treasury and the Capitalists, whether 
these latter are or are not united in associations or 
trusts. 

It is because the principles of Democracy are rooted 
in the Constitution; because it draws its vital force from 
the life and energy and intelligence of the masses; 
because its aims have always been directed to objects 
of broad public utility and advantage; because it has 
condemned sectionalism in every form and fought 
against cliques and cabals even in its own ranks, when 
they sought to turn the powers of Government, or 
the operations of law, to private or corporate advan- 
tage ; that this great party of the people has survived 
all the vicissitudes of time and of circumstance and 
has remained, throughout the entire history of the United 
States, the only permanent national political organization. 

The Federalist party had definite objects of temporary 
importance — when these were accomplished the organi- 
zation went to pieces. The Whigs arose, flourished 
awhile and fell asleep. The Republican Party came into 
power because temporary issues divided the Democracy. 
The war gave to the Republicans a supreme principle 
of co-hesion — its results brought them an unparalleled 
opportunity but the issues of peace produced disin- 
tegration and led the great body of the people back 
to the historic and enduring stronghold of Democratic 



314 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

doctrine. The Democratic Party is the political home 
of the plain American citizen. There he is sure of 
finding shelter and security, there his person is respected, 
his rights are protected, his interests are promoted. In 
the sunshine of prosperity he may stray into alluring 
pastures, but in the night of perplexity, in the storms 
of adversity, he comes home to the old fold. The 
ancient creed of pure Democracy recognizes five 
essentials in Federal finance. ist-^Hard money. 
2. — Taxation for revenue only and bearing equally 
upon all the people in proportion to their means. 
3. — No National debt. 4th — Economy in expenditure. 
5th — Limitation of appropriations to strictly Federal 
objects. 

These fundamental principals are believed by Demo- 
crats to flow logically and necessarily from the Con- 
stitution, and the wisdom of adhering to them is claimed 
to be demonstrated by the history of the Country. 
Whenever an occasion has arisen for appealing to the 
people upon an issue squarely involving one of these 
principles, the Democratic doctrine has been affirmed. 

The four principles of Democracy, last above men- 
tioned, will be treated by others, — this paper is confined 
to the first — Hard Money. 

Before and during the Revolution, the people of 
America endured unspeakable distress from the pro- 
clivity of the Colonial and afterwards, of the nascent 
State Governments, to issue paper money. 

Upon one pretext or another, but always covertly 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. / 315 

in the interests of some favored class or of some 
astute combination of schemers, every one of the 
Colonies had been despoiled through the stealthy- 
process of putting out " bills of credit," and when the 
Revolution broke out the occasion was promptly used 
for the same purpose. The Continental Congress met 
on the 10th of May, and on the 30th the New York 
delegation, declaring that the States were unable to 
raise, either by loans or taxation, money enough to 
meet the demands of the occasion, and that paper 
currency would have to be resorted to, proposed that 
such currency should be issued by the Continental 
Congress rather than by the States separately, because 
in that way it would probably obtain greater credit. 
This proposition was adopted with the conditions that 
the States should take up the issues by means of taxa-_ 
tion, and on the 22nd of June was authorized the 
issue of $3,000,000. 

This was the beginning of what was called continental 
currency, of which the total issues finally reached the 
sum of $241,552,280, The States made it a legal 
tender but they made no effort tq absorb it fry taxa- 
tion ; on the contrary they issued bills of credit of 
their own, and thus added to the forces tending to 
depreciation. 

As early as January, 1776, only six months after 

the issue of this currency, and hardly three months 

after it had gone into general circulation, the bills of 

credit were found to be so much discredited, that 

'9 



3l6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Congress solemnly appealed to the various authorities 
throughout the Country, to outlaw " every person who 
should be found so lost to all virtue and regard for 
his country, as to refuse to receive said bills in pay- 
ment, or obstruct and discourage the currency thereof." 

Although this appeal was responded to by the State 
authorities and produced mob violence of various kinds 
in different parts of the country, the evil grew rapidly 
in magnitude, so, that by December of the same year 
the Government directed General Putnam, then in 
command of the Army in Philadelphia, to issue an 
order that if anyone refused to take the government 
notes in payment for goods, the goods should be for- 
feited and the person so refusing should be thrown 
in prison. 

Month by month and year by year the presses con- 
tinued to pour forth notes, some pledging the faith 
and credit of Congress, others expressing the obliga- 
tion of a State to pay to the bearer a definite sum 
in pounds, shillings and pence, or in dollars and cents, 
these notes were disbursed by the Federal and State 
anthorities, " money " such as it was had never been 
so plentiful, but instead of disseminating prosperity 
and happiness it brought a curse upon the people. 

Depreciation in value, decline in purchasing power, 
kept pace with the issue of the notes, the less the 
value the greater the volume of each emission, while 
every addition to the volume in circulation aggrava- 
ted the depreciation. 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. ' 3 17 

The Government was embarrassed, the military de- 
fence was seriously endangered, and the whole body 
of the people suffered greatly from the disorder of 
the currency. Every resource that official and legisla- 
tive ingenuity could suggest and every device prompted 
by popular despair was resorted to. Time and again 
the civil authority of the States intervened and the 
military power of the Government was exerted, in 
vain contention against the force of popular distrust. 

A law was passed fixing the gold value of conti- 
nental notes, then that very law was accused of caus- 
ing distrust and aggravating the depreciation. The 
law was repealed yet the depreciation went on, Com- 
mittees of safety were organized charged with author- 
ity to regulate prices, rent, wages and everything 
else that was measured by money. 

Among the expedients tried was the formation of 
associations for the purpose of driving hard money 
out of circulation upon the theory that if all the 
operations of society were confined to papef money 
the decline of the money in value would be prevented. 

Public meetings were held everywhere and popular 
odium was directed against everybody and everything 
except the real cause of the trouble. Dealers in com- 
modities were especially denounced, for it was wrong- 
fully charged that these men were speculating upon 
the public emergency and were making gains out of 
their distressed compatriots, while in reality the un- 
happy wretches were simply engaged in futile though 
frantic efforts to escape ruin. 



318 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Finally in 1780, when the continental money had 
fallen in value, to about $40 for one in coin, when 
every device and expedient to keep it up had been 
tried and had failed, Congress stopped the issue and 
made requisition upon the States for $15,000 a month 
in notes, or 1—40 of that sum in coin. It was found 
more tolerable to seize the needed supplies directly 
than to continue the iniquity of paper money pay- 
ment. The Continental currency thus demonetized by 
Congress was very soon afterwards formally repudiated 
by the States which one after another repealed the 
laws they had made declaring such currency to be 
legal tender. 

" Like an aged man expiring by the decays of na- 
ture, without a sigh, or a groan, it gently fell asleep 
in the hands of its last possessors." This is Ramsay's 
poetry, but in vigorous prose, he and other historians 
of the time tell that the misery and the demoraliza- 
tion produced by the paper money during the Revo- 
lution far exceeded all the other distresses of the 
period. 

Speaking of the legal tender continental currency, 
Pelatiah Webster says, " it has polluted the equity of 
our laws, turned them into engines of oppression and 
wrong; corrupted the justice of our public adminis- 
tration ; destroyed the fortunes of thousands who had 
the most confidence in it ; enervated the trade, hus- 
bandry, and manufacturers of the country : and went 
far to destroy the morality of our people." 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 319 

"We have suffered more," says Webster, in another 
place, "from this cause, than from any other cause or 
calamity. It has killed more men, pervaded and cor- 
rupted the choicest interests of our country more, and 
done more injustice, than even the arms and the arti- 
fice of the enemy." " Old debts," says another, "were 
paid when paper money was more than seventy for 
one. Brothers defrauded brother, children parents, and 
parents children. Widows, orphans, and others were 
paid for money lent in specie with depreciated paper 
which they were compelled to receive." 

"That the army," said Josiah Quincy, in a letter 
to Washington, " has been grossly cheated ; that credi- 
tors have been infamously defrauded ; that the widow 
and fatherless have been oppressively wronged and 
beggared ; that the gray hairs of the aged and the 
innocent, for want of their just dues, have gone down 
with sorrow to their graves, in consequence of our 
disgraceful, depreciated paper currency — may now be 
affirmed without hazard of refutation ; and I wish it 
could be said with truth that the war has not there- 
by been protracted." 

In the language of Mr. Justice Story, the tender 
and maximum laws "entailed the most enormous evils 
on the country, and introduced a system of fraud, 
chicanery, and profligacy which destroyed all private 
confidence and all industry and enterprise." 

"The property of the inhabitants," says Dr. Ramsey, 
" in a considerable degree changed its owners. Many 



320 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

opulent persons of ancient families were ruined by 
selling paternal estates for a depreciating paper cur- 
rency, which in a few weeks would not replace half 
of the real property in exchange for which it was ob- 
tained. Many bold adventurers made fortunes in a 
short time by running in debt beyond their abilities. 
Prudence ceased to be a virtue and rashness usurped 
its place." 

"Time and industry soon repaired the losses of 
property which citizens sustained during the war, but 
both for a long time failed in effacing the taint which 
was then communicated to their principles." 

"That the helpless part of the community were 
legislatively deprived of their property was among the 
lesser evils which resulted from the legal tender of 
the depreciated bills of credit. The iniquity of the 
laws estranged the minds of many of the citizens 
from the habits and love of justice. The nature of 
obligations was so far changed that he was reckoned 
the honest man, who from principle, delayed to pay 
his debts. The bounds which government had erected 
to secure the observance of honesty in the commercial 
intercourse of man with man were broken down. Truth, 
honor, and justice were swept away by the overflow- 
ing deluge of legal iniquity; nor have they yet 
assumed their ancient and accustomed seats," 

It is to the impression made by these experiences 
that we are indebted for so much of Section 10, of 
the last Article of the Constitution, as prohibits any 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 321 

State from " emitting bills of credit, or making any- 
thing but gold and silver coin a tender in payment 
of debts." 

Up to 1862 the prohibitions of this section were 
held to apply to the Federal as well as to the State 
governments and upon the broad foundation of prin- 
ciples thus laid in the organic law and thus interpreted, 
the Democratic party has from its organization built 
its financial policy with respect to the money of the 
people, the circulating medium by which the operations 
of Society and industry are carried on. 

In its devotion to the principles of hard money, the 
party of Jefferson and Jackson opposed the National 
banks of 1791 and 18 16. In 1 791 Congress passed an 
act chartering the bank of North America, and Wash- 
ington consulted his cabinet of four, as to whether he 
should approve the act or veto it. Hamilton and 
Knox, Federalists, advised approval — Jefferson and Ran- 
dolph, Republicans, urged a veto. 

This was among the most prominent issues between 
these leaders — the crest of the "Divide" on either side 
of which is "fons et origo" of their respective parties. 

Washington approved the Act, but the charter of 
the bank expired in twenty years and all efforts for 
its renewal begun during Jefferson's administration, and 
continued into Madison's, failed. Both these friends of 
the people opposed it and the country sustained them. 

In 1816, under stress of the prostration in trade 
and industry, consequent upon the war with Great 



322 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Britain, Congress chartered the Bank of the United 
States, but President Jackson assailed the bank in 
his inaugural message, and toward the end of his first 
term, he vetoed the bill for its recharter, although 
the Supreme Court, through Chief Justice Marshall had 
pronounced the charter constitutional and although the 
Committee of Ways and Means, of the House, made a 
masterly report in favor of the Bank and ex-President 
Madison, who had opposed the first Bank, now joined 
with Gallatin in support of this one. 

Jackson's candidacy for a second term was made 
chiefly on the issue raised by this veto ; the same is- 
sue entered into the elections to Congress, and the 
popular verdict was pronounced with vigor in favor 
of Jackson and the other opponents of the Bank. 
Subsequently the public deposits were withdrawn and 
the Bank collapsed and spread ruin over the Country, 
yet Jackson never repented. After he had had an 
opportunity to review calmly his course in this mat- 
ter and to judge of its wisdom by studying its re- 
sults, he thought it proper in his farewell address, to 
leave permanently on record the principle which deter- 
mined his conduct ; It was very simple. " Distrust of 
paper money as fatal to the prosperity, the morality 
and the freedom of the people." " By the paper mon- 
ey system and its natural associations," says he, "mo- 
nopoly and exclusive privileges have struck their roots 
too deep into the soil." In another place he speaks 
of the iniquities and mischiefs of the paper system, 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. ' 323 

and the spirit of monopoly and other abuses which 
have sprung up with it. 

"My humble efforts," he continues, "have not been 
spared during my administration of the Government 
to restore the constitutional currency of gold and 
silver." 

After this, until 1862, the "hard money" principle 
of Jacksonian Democracy was held sacred throughout 
the land. In 1862 the voice of party was hushed, 
but the principles of the Democracy were never 
abandoned. On either side of Mason and Dixon's 
line, the masses of the people were arrayed almost 
solidly against each other. The recusants on either 
side, were factions, not parties. The quarrel was con- 
fined to one Democratic Doctrine only, State Rights, 
and even while that was being fought out to a final 
settlement, all the other principles of Democracy were 
cherished in common on both sides. Especially was 
this the case in respect to money. Paper issues 
were inevitable, but Mr. Chase held out against a 
legal tender paper currency until every other resource 
was exhausted, and as a last resort, he accepted the 
National Bank system in the hope that by engaging 
the Capitalists to sustain the currrency, loss and dis- 
tress might be averted from the people. When the 
legal tender act passed the House February 6, 1862, 
the vote was 93 to 59 — not a Democrat voted in the 
affirmative. On the other side of the theatre of war, 
the old doctrine held undisputed sway, men were taken 



324 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

by conscription, supplies and horses by seizure, but 
desperate as were the financial straits of the Confed- 
erate Government, its Treasury notes were never made 
legal tender. 

Mr. John J. Knox, a strong Republican and a recog- 
nized authority, says in his "Unted States Notes, " 
" Specie payments were suspended on December 28th, 1861. 
The war was carried on chiefly by the use of Treas- 
ury notes as a circulating medium. The purchasing 
power of these notes rapidly declined. * * * The 
expenditures of the Government during the four years 
of the war were vastly increased beyond the amount 
that would have been necessary if the war could have 
been conducted on the gold standard instead of on the 
fluctuating standard of the legal tender paper dollar." 

Mr. Geo. S. Coe, in 1876, speaking of the issue of 
Greenbacks, alludes to " the excessive cost of the war, 
the vast increases of the National debt and the pub- 
lic and private evils which a profuse currency has 
entailed upon the country," and concludes admirably: 
" This forcible entry of the Government into the pri- 
vate affairs of the people so utterly at variance with 
the fundamental principles of our system, so great an 
abridgment of personal liberty and operating as a 
tax so unequal in its effects, was a rigorous measure 
of war, and as such, was to be vindicated only as a 
temporary act of dire necessity." 

The " Hard Money " doctine of the Democratic 
creed never had its fundamental principle better stated 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 325 

than it is here expounded by this brilliant banker 
and zealous Republican. 

After an exclusion of a quarter of a century from 
Federal office, the Democrats were recalled in 1885 
to the duties and responsibilities of National admin- 
istration. In the interval the population of the country 
had nearly doubled, radical changes had occurred in 
official methods in the distribution of political, social 
and industrial forces, in the character, the lines and 
the means of interior communication, in the employments, 
the habits and the ideas of large bodies of the pop- 
ulation, and yet to the amazement of their enemies 
and even to the surprise of many among themselves, 
the chosen representatives of the Democracy have 
proven, individually and collectively, equal to the oc- 
casion, and especially have they vindicated the ca- 
pacity of this great party of Constitutional principles 
for dealing with the National finances. 

It is a striking illustration on a great scale, of the 
truth of the homely adage — " where there is a will 
there is a way." 

Without other equipment than faith in their prin- 
ciples, and a resolute purpose to be true to those 
principles, Democrats in Congress and in the Depart- 
ments have drawn a broad line of demarkation be- 
tween Mr. Cleveland's administration and those pre- 
ceding it. 

This line which will endure ineffaceable as long as 
History has a page for the annals of America, is not 



326 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

marked by a single sign among those predicted by 
our enemies in 1884. No precipitate changes in the 
clerical service, no crude " New , broom " efforts, no 
attempt at sensational exposures, but on the other 
hand, no dependence upon the subordinates they re- 
tained, no blind acceptance of official tradition, no 
dull plodding in paths worn by the practice of their 
predecessors has characterized the Democrats who were 
suddenly elevated to positions which, while absolutely 
new to them, were, in 1884, regarded almost univer- 
sally as requiring long training and especial aptitude. 
While familiarity has dulled among us the effect of 
this remarkable feature of the Cleveland administra- 
tion, history will preserve it in salient lines and pos- 
terity will marvel at it. 

The wonder of it and the credit of it cannot be 
weakened by explanation, but explanation is honorable 
to all concerned. It is this. The principles of the 
Democratic party have their root in the Constitution, 
they grew up in the popular mind with the growth of the 
country up to i860, they were applied to the practical 
conduct of the Government during a dozen administra- 
tions, and while the party was out of power, these prin- 
ciples have been cherished in life and activity, they 
have been preserved in the traditions and the creed 
of Democrats everywhere ; consequently, when the party 
came into power these principles fitted the public busi- 
ness as keys, even though long lost, fit the locks to 
which they originally belonged. By means of. these 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 327 

principles the Democrats opened all the secrets of ad- 
ministration and gained access to all the mysteries of 
office. 

The President, in his first annual message, aston- 
ished the country by his familiarity with all the com- 
plexities of Government, and the Secretary of the 
Treasury presented the financial situation in a mas- 
terly manner as follows : 

"A review of the several groups of laws which it 
is the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to ad- 
minister, manifests, as inquiry into the business of 
the country does, the grave need of reform in the 
state of our currency and in the present scheme of 
our taxation. Both are legacies of war. They are 
unaccountable except by the light of the events 
which afforded their origin and their excuse. 

"These reforms invite and exact the best efforts of 
American statesmanship. Neither party has escaped 
the danger of defending, as good, evils which both 
parties were merely getting used to. Men of both 
parties, public men conversant with public affairs, and 
men absorbed in earning their livelihood, have been 
liable to influence from the great force of example 
which all Governments carry ; and so the belief has 
spread that the disorder of our currency is a kind of 
order, that the mixture of private jobs and past pub- 
lic needs in our tariff is a system of protection to 
American labor." 



328 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Currency Reform. 

Currency Reform is first in the order of importance 
and time and fitly precedes other reforms, even tax- 
ation reform, because it will facilitate all other reforms, 
and because it cannot safely be deferred. 

The disorders of our currency chiefly arise from the 
operation of two enactments : 

"I. The act of February 28, 1878, which has been 
construed as a permanent appropriation for perpetual 
Treasury purchases of at least $24,000,000 worth of 
silver per annum, although from causes mostly foreign 
that metal is now of mutable and falling value, which 
must be manufactured into coins of unlimited legal 
tender and issued to the people of the United States 
as equivalents of our monetary unit." 

"2. The act of May 31, 1878, which indefinitely post- 
poned fulfilment of the solemn pledge (March 18, 1869) 
not only of " redemption " but also of " payment " of 
all obligations of the United States not bearing in- 
terest, legalized as $346,000,000 paper money of un- 
limited legal tender and required the post-redemption 
issue and re-issue of these promises to pay dollars, as 
equivalents of our monetary unit." 

But these two evils, which are each a separate 
menace to the public tranquillity and injurious to the 
public morals and the public faith, do not double the 
difficulties of a reform of the currency. Their con- 
currence may even assist Congress to provide the people 
of the United States with a better currency than the 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 329 

best flow possessed by any nation — a currency in 
which every dollar note shall be the representative 
certificate of a coin dollar actually in the Treasury 
and payable on demand ; a currency in which our 
monetary unit coined in gold, ($550,000,000) and its 
equivalent coined in silver ($215,000,000) shall not be 
suffered to part company. 

"A table given on page 23 is an analysis of the 
history of the United States monetary unit, including 
every coinage act that has dealt with the unit from 
1789 until now. Setting aside the exigencies and the 
errors of the war period when paper expelled coin, 
that history is a record of proud integrity, of uniform 
good faith. " 

" Congress has established justice, and maintained it in 
a chief article and instrument of justice, the monetary 
unit. The good faith dictating every change is 
demonstrable." 

"This analysis of our coinage laws and explanation 
of their history yield light for guidance now. Or- 
dained to " establish justice," the Constitution itself is 
buttressed by this first century of constancy in the 
Congress to a continuous and just equivalence in the 
successive coin embodiments of the monetary unit for 
a standard and measure of value. The precedent stands 
and will stand for centuries to come, the admiration, 
the pride, the rule of law and of duty for many 
generations of self-governing freemen. It is for us to 
pass on unimpaired this high tradition of financial 



330 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

integrity. But of justice as of liberty, l eternal vigilance 
is the price.' " 

In his Annual Report on the Finances for 1886, 
Mr. Manning contributed to the honor of the Country, 
to the credit of financial science, and to the record, 
of the Democratic party the following magnificent 
exposition of the Constitutional principles and the 
financial maxims which governed legislation and ad- 
ministration down to the period "when a great danger 
had beclouded most men's perceptions of financial as 
well as constitutional law." 

11 As the competency of the Federal Government to 
make its debts a legal tender of payment for the 
debts of its citizens, one to another, has in these latter 
days, been affirmed, despite an absolute consensus of 
opinion to the contrary among its founders and states- 
men of all parties from 1789 to 1861, it seems to me 
in this conflict of legal opinions a duty to recur to 
the unquestioned conclusions of a sound finance." 
Coin, Not Promises, Fit for Legal Tender. 

"When the Union of the States was formed in 1789. 
and the present Constitution ordained the last and first 
avowed objects of its framers were to secure liberty 
and to establish justice. Political philosophy as yet 
has framed no higher ideals. Justice was their endeavor, 
and the Constitution, like the laws framed by the 
early Congresses, in which many of its framers sat, 
shows a fixed purpose to avert unknown perils to 
justice." 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 33 1 

"Among the chief instruments and means of justice 
is a least imperfect, least variable coin monetary unit ; 
the standard of all exchanges and lawful tender of 
paj/ments. The framers of the Constitution were 
fresh from a bitter experience of the calamities con- 
sequent upon stretching the legal tender quality from 
coin to promises to pay coin. So they built high a 
double barrier against that calamity. They limited 
the Federal Government to certain and delegated 
powers. They defined some and prohibited other 
certain powers to the States. And, lest, the residue 
of unprohibited or undelegated powers which com- 
pleted the round sum of sovereignty, should be im- 
plied into the Federal Government, they reserved 
them explicitly to the States respectively or to the 
people. Then, to the Federal Government they gave 
many powers, but not this power to make the 
Treasury notes of the United States a legal tender in 
the payment of private debts. Then to the States 
they explicitly prohibited all future exercise of a similar 
power — theretofore at most grievous cost exercised by 
them amid the struggles of foundation or the throes 
of revolution. Nor in any one of the fifteen amend- 
ments which have enlarged the Federal powers, over 
slavery, representation, citizenship, and voting franchise, 
has there been enlargement of the powers at first be- 
stowed upon the United States, and vested in their 
Congress as the power to ' coin money, regulate the 

value thereof and of foreign coin.' And while thus 
20 



332 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

were refused in the Convention and withheld in the 
Constitution, any warrant to amplify or excuse for 
abusing, the power so specified and granted, it was 
also ordained that thereafter * no State shall * * * 
emit bills of credit ; make anything but gold and 
silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass * * 
any law impairing the obligation of contracts.' 

" Under the last clause of the eighth section of the 
Constitution, the power thus granted was by the Sec- 
ond Congress, in the coinage law of 1792, as neces- 
sarily and properly executory of that power wisely 
and fully exercised. It was -exercised without abuse, 
without pretension to some sovereign power inherited, 
but as a specific power delegated to the Federal 
Government and vested in the Congress. 

" It was exercised not in relation to any power to 
borrow money, for money, besides being one kind of 
wealth, is also that kind which is a standard and 
measure of the value of all kinds of wealth ; and to 
change the standard, in the act of borrowing, from 
coin to the promise to pay coin, would have been not 
borrowing merely, but also cheating or enriching the 
lender. If such power be indeed a sovereign power, 
legitimate and heritable, it is of the least precious 
patrimony reserved in the sovereignty of the people, 
for it was prohibited to the States, and never delegated 
to the United States. The Congress of 1792 fixed the 
monetary unit of the United States in coin, gave it 
the name Dollar, made it .the unit of the money of 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 333 

account in their offices and courts, named also the 
multiples and fractions, and then, opening their mint 
free to all comers, affixed the full legal-tender quality 
to all gold and silver there coined. 

44 Congress might under its also granted power 4 to 
borrow money' have received the loan of all the 
coined gold and silver dollars that their owners would 
lend, for borrowing is not taking by force of law or 
license, against the will of the lender. It is taking 
because the consent of the borrower to receive concurs 
with the consent of the lender to convey. In return 
for each and all of those coins it might have emitted 
its promises to pay on demand. That would have 
been the exercise of its granted power to borrow 
money. At further need, it might have agreed to pay 
from its constant receipt of taxes (for the longer loan 
of money which is its own constantly outgoing ex- 
penditure and the residue of still unborrowed money 
would provide) money in principal sums and as in- 
terest giving therefor its time obligations. That would 
have been the exercise of its power to borrow money. 
But the power to change the unit of value in money 
so borrowed or so loaned, has no relation, legitimate 
or logical, with such or any power to borrow money. 
It is not derivable from the borrowing power. It is a 
power illegitimate and irrelevant both to the borrow- 
ing and the lending power. 

44 The latter is a power to use the credit which a 
Government has from men's faith in its honor and 



334 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

its' laws. The power to raise or depress the monetary 
unit 1 of value is a power to destroy men's faith in 
the honor of a Government and its laws. The 
power to force into the circulation an unfit 
representative of, a false equivalent of, a debt of, 
that monetary unit of value, as its namesake and 
equal in exchange, is a power to destroy men's faith 
in the honor of a Government and its laws. Their 
sense 1 of betrayal, and their perception of the fact 
are expressed by the non-equivalence in exchange often 
disclosed between the undebased coin and the de- 
based coin, between the coin and the promise to pay. 
concerted into a legal tender, between the coin unde- 
preciated and the depreciated coin, according as in 
any f of these ways the monetary: unit has been the 
instrument or the memorial of that duplicity. But 
such proceedings found no precedent, such opinions as 
are here controverted found no believer, no defender 
among the lawyers, statesmen, or people in the first 
seventy-two years of this Republic. 

"Not until after 1861, when a great danger had be- 
clouded most men's perceptions of financial as well as 
constitutional law, was a legal tender money made out 
of the debts of the United States. 

" Not until the infection spread was it ever deliberately 
argued that any representative of the unit of value 
could justly be suffered to be made, or to abide, in 
permanent depreciation and disparity therewith. 

" But whether or not a non-equivalent of the coin dol- 



THE NATIONAL FINANCES. 335 

lar may be made a lawful dollar, and whether or not 
post-redemption issues of such promises can be Jaw- 
fully made, after twenty-one years of peace have super- 
ceded any real or imagined exigency of war, certain it 
is that every argument of policy now forbids the continu- 
ance of that legalized injustice. Had it ever been con- 
ferred, the Federal Government should be stripped of 
so dangerous a power. No Executive and no Legisla- 
ture is fit to be trusted with- the control it involves 
over the earnings and the savings of the people. No 
earthly sovereign or servant is capable of a just exer- 
cise of such authority to impair and pervert the obli- 
gation of contracts. 

"To apply the present and the unadvoidably accru- 
ing proceeds of our surplus taxation during the next 
five years in payment of the only portion of the 
public debt beyond the vanishing three per cents, 
which is now due or will be payable except, at. a 
high premium, before the four and a half per cents 
of 1891 mature, besides being a large measure of 
currency reform, will also diminish and finally dissipate 
the objectionable and invidious influence of the Treas- 
ury upon the money market and upon the business 
of the country. Skillful administration of the Depart- 
ment in respect to its incomes and outgoes may re- 
duce to a minimum that influence which cannot but 
be considered while its receipts average a million dol- 
lars a day. But it is in no way for the public ad- 
vantage, it is a distinct interference with private 



336 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

property, and it is an improper trust to be imposed 
upon any officer of the Government, when the most 
prudent, faithful and intelligent exercise of his judg- 
ment, and the wisest use of the power he is com- 
pelled to accept, cannot fail to promote the pecuniary 
advantage or involve the pecuniary disadvantage of 
this or that group of his fellow-citizens. It is no 
defence of the coudition of things that has grown up 
since the war, and which has gradually converted the 
Treasury into such an overshadowing fiscal power, in- 
voked at every commercial crisis, to say that we are 
becoming accustomed to it. 

" These illegitimate and unwarranted encroachments 
off governmental influence should be restricted and 
abridged, with constant and inflexible purpose to re- 
store the simplicity, compel the frugality, and limit 
the authority of Federal as of all our governmental 
institutions. Of these the true function is to guard 
our individual liberties, not to confine them, not 
to supersede them, not to direct them. Even monarch- 
ies are slowly discarding other functions. Democracies 
have no use for their cast off trappings. It is liberty 
which has enlightened the world, not the necessary 
evil of legislatures, laws, courts, armies, and police, 
which with our taxes we pay to guard that liberty 
from aggression." 




JAMES L. PUGH. 



CHAPTER IV. 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 



Hon. James L. Pugh, 
U. S. Senator. 

''PHE words labor and capital have the most compre- 
hensive meaning and far-reaching application. We 
all understand that labor is the power to produce. In 
itself it is a natural, inherent, self-existing power. It 
produces all necessaries of life, like food, clothing, shelter, 
and also produces all wealth. Food, clothing and shelter 
are the necessaries, and wealth supplies the incidental 
wants, or the luxuries of life. Labor is Capital in the 
sense that it produces Capital. Nearly all property that 
constitutes wealth is the product or incident of labor. 
When labor and capital co-exist, as a compound power in 
the same ownership, there can be no antagonism, but 
when capital, or wealth, separates from labor and exists 
in independent ownership its natural tendency is to 
become more or less aggressive, domineering and tyran- 
nical. Generally, and legitimately, labor and capital are 
mutual supports of each other, and they cannot become 
unfriendly without mutual injury. When they work 
together in harmonious co-operation, they move the 
industrial and productive machinery of the world. When 

labor and capital separate and make war on each other 

(339) 



340 LABOR AND CAPITAL. 

all mechanism and organism become deranged and cause 
incalculable and irreparable mischief. 

How is it that labor and capital are made unfriendly, 
and do so much harm to each other, and the whole 
country ? It is impossible for this unfriendly and antago- 
nistic relation to exist without some wrongdoing by one 
or the other. Whenever a dispute arises that, results in 
strife, separation, and enmity, some wrong has been com- 
mitted by somebody. It is of the last importance that 
working people and employers should deal justly and 
fairly with each other. Mutual confidence is indispensa- 
ble to secure hearty co-operation. Mean selfishness and 
greed, or undue advantage taken of unfavorable, natural 
or other conditions of supply and demand, produce dis- 
trust, and ill feeling, and cause retaliation, resentment, and 
separation. No examination of the relations of labor 
and capital can be productive of more beneficial results 
than that which discovers the faults, the shortcomings, 
the failures, and the wrongs of each in its relations to 
the other, which furnish just cause of offence, and produce 
well-grounded distrust, complaint, and resentment. " Large 
social forces are working an alarming change in American 
society." While " vast natural laws are driving the 
world of industry and trade " we cannot surrender to 
these great agencies the sole power of producing results. 
These natural laws " take up as factors in their operation 
the reason, sentiment, conscience and will of man. We 
encumber, retard, and frequently defeat the workings of 
natural laws by our ignorance, anger, folly, and selfish- 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 34 1 

ness ; while we can greatly promote their healthful 
operation by our wisdom, conscience, friendships, and 
wrongs and imperfections of the human beings who 
are the constituent elements of society and govern- 
ment." 

First. Let us inquire into the faults of labor. "A 
large proportion of our wage workers are inefficient, 
require watching to prevent botching their work. 
Such laborers waste material, injure property, and 
block business." "Many of our wage workers are 
thriftless. Men and women neglect habits of economy, 
are careless in spending, and save nothing," 

The Rev. R. Heber Newton D. D., from whom I 
have quoted, is a minister of great ability and learn- 
ing, who has devoted much time and study to the 
relations of labor and capital, in Europe and America, 
and who was examined by the Senate Committee on 
Education and Labor in 1883, and, among other 
things, testified in substance — "that the fault of thrift - 
lessness of the average working man runs through 
his life in many ways. That the old fashioned thrift 
by which our fathers and mothers climbed the lower 
rounds of the ladder, and which all experience shows 
to be the secret of success in the first and hardest 
pull of life, seems quite gone out of fashion, and how, 
without it, men are to honestly drive ahead in life, 
no one knows." The learned Divine thinks that labor, 
is at fault in its lack of power to combine, and its 
defective methods of combination. That a mob of 



342 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

men 'trample upon each other ; and in an army they 
brace each other to the charge of victory. He finds 
a grievous fault in the abuse of our trades unions in 
their concentration of attention upon the organization 
of strikes. Strikes have had their part to play in 
the development of our industrial system. We note 
their failures and forget their successes. Their chief 
service has been in teaching combination and in show- 
ing labor the need of a better weapon than the 
strike. The cost of strikes is expressible only in the 
aggregate of the savings of labor consumed in idleness ; 
the loss of the productivity of the country ; the dis- 
turbance of the whole mechanism of exchange, and 
the injury done our delicate social organism by this 
unnatural strain. Labor ought to have learned that a 
stunning blow between the eyes is not the best 
method of inducing a kindly feeling and a just judg- 
ment on the part of capital. The strike is a boom- 
erang whose hardest blows are often dealt backward 
on the striker. In our free contract system strikes 
are entirely justifiable when they are really necessary. 
Working-men have the right to combine in affixing 
the price at which they are willing to work. The 
supply of labor and the demand for its products, in 
the absence of higher considerations, will settle the 
question whether or not they can get the price asked. 
The trying features of this method of reaching a 
result are necessarily incidental to our industrial sys- 
tem. Trades unions represent the one effective form 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 343 

of combination. They were called into being to de- 
fend labor against legislation by the Republican party 
in the interest of capital. They have committed 
plenty of follies, and are still capable of stupid tyran- 
nies that only succeed in handicapping labor, in 
alienating capital, and in checking productivity, 
thereby diminishing the sum total of divisible wealth. 
Such actions are inevitable in the early stages of 
combination by uneducated men, feeling a new sense 
of power, and striking blindly out in angry retaliation 
for real or fancied injuries. Trades unions are grad- 
ually outgrowing their crude methods. The attempts 
lately made by great corporations to break them up 
is a piece of despotism, which deserves to be rebuked 
by the people. Labor must combine just as capital 
has combined in forming powerful corporations. Labor's 
only means of defending its interests is through 
combination. Strikes are the abuse and not the legiti- 
mate use of combination in trades unions. Trades 
unions should turn their attention to the modern 
improvements upon this bludgeon to be found in 
arbitration. Arbitration is a much cheaper and a more 
effective instrument of adjusting differences between 
capital and labor, and a far more likely means of 
securing an increase of wages. It places both sides 
to the controversy in an amicable mood and is an 
appeal to the reason and conscience, not wholly dead 
in the most soulless corporation. It has become a 
substitute for strikes in England. 



344 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Mr. Frederick Harrison, in his address. to the trades 
unions Congress in England said — " There are no men 
in the country more opposed to the policy of strikes- 
more convinced of the suffering they cause — than the 
officers and managers of the great permanent societies. 

"The measure of value in a strong union lies not so 
much in the conduct of successful strikes, as it does 
in the number of disputes its moral strength prevents. 
Their influence and that of their congress has been 
steadily exerted to substitute arbitration for strikes. 

" Their influence in favor of arbitration is shown in 
the steady progress of that principle in the diminution 
of strikes." 

Another high authority upon the labor problem is 
Mr. William Mather, Representative to the United 
States and Canada in behalf of the English Royal 
Commission on Technical Education. He resides in 
Manchester, England, and is proprietor of large ma- 
chine shops and has been an employer of labor all 
his life. After spending about three years in this 
country and just before he left to make his report 
to his Government the Committee on Education and 
Labor met and examined him in Boston in October, 
1883. He is a gentleman of remarkable ability and 
teaming and large experience and his testimany 
is full of the most valuable instruction. On the sub- 
ject of trades unions and arbitration in England he 
stated : 

"I am happy to say that trades unions with us 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. ' <-' 345 

have become part and parcel of our life. We have 
accepted them now as one of the proper societies for 
the working classes to form, and conducted as they 
are, by able, and ; I think, in the main, conscientious 
and respectable men, we have joined with them rather 
than separated from them. Employers of labor generally 
have lost that violent antagonism, which, you -know, 
existed at one time ; the trades unions have moderated 
many of their demands, and whatever demands they 
now make are made in moderate language and more 
polite ways. The capitalists and laboring population 
have both learned by experience, and, I think I may 
say, have come to see that none of the interests of 
capital or labor can be served when there is an 
antagonism between them. On the other hand I think 
the labor classes see that capital has certain difficulties 
and trials and experiences of which laborers know 
nothing, and by frequently comparing ideas, as we do 
under the arbitration courts that are sometimes estab- 
lished between employers and working men, a great 
deal of information is passed from one side to the 
other. The consequence is that, as a rule, violence and 
passion have departed from strikes and all questions 
are settled With good feeling. 

"In all trades aside from the textile industries we 
have for many years been, for t the most part, entirely 
free from strikes. We have bridged over many diffi- 
culties by this simple ' remedy of arbitration." 

Labor cannot make a graver mistake and one more 
destructive of all the moral power of trades unions 
and all the forms of combination than to authorize, 
encourage or countenance in the slightest degree any 
resort to force or violence or the use of compulsory 
methods or practices to accomplish any object or 
purpose that may be right, just, and lawful in itself, or 
that interferes with the utmost freedom of thought and 



346 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

lawful action by all working-men. The remedy of force 
or violence or prescriptive methods to prevent free 
contract labor, strikes down everything in society and 
government upon which workingmen are most dependent 
for protection in their pursuits, and the prosperity result- 
ing from remunerative wages. 

I have mentioned some of the salient faults of labor 
that are manifest to all dispassionate observers. The 
first step to a better state of things says Doctor 
Newton is the correction of these faults. " Whatever 
other factors enter into the problem, this is the factor 
which it concerns labor to look after, if it would reach 
the equation of the good time coming." No reconstruc- 
tion of society can avail for incompetent, indifferent, 
thriftless men, who cannot work together. Self help 
must precede all other help. Dreamers may picture 
Utopias, where all our present laws are suspended, and 
demagogues may cover up the disagreeable facts of 
labor's own share of responsibility for its pitiful con- 
dition, but sensible workingmen will remember that, as 
Renan told his countrymen, after the Franco-Prussian 
war, "the first duty is to face the facts of the situa- 
tion." " There are no royal roads to an honest mastery 
of fortune, though there seem to be plenty of by-ways 
to dishonest success. Nature is a hard school mistress. 
She allows no makeshifts for the discipline of hard 
work, and of self-denial, for the culture of all the 
strengthful qualities. Her American school for workers 
is not, as yet, overcrowded. The rightful order of 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 347 

society is not, as yet, submersed on our shores. There 
are the rewards of merit for all who will work and 
wait. No man of average intelligence needs to suffer 
in our counfry, if he has clear grit in him. * The 
stone that is fit for the wall ' as the Spanish proverb 
runs 'will not be left in the road.'" 

But, continues Doctor Newton, u when all this is 
said about the faults of labor merely half the case 
has been presented. There is a shallow optimism, 
which from the heights of prosperity, throws all the 
blame of laborers sufferings on labor's own broad 
shoulders ; steels the heart of society against it be- 
cause of these patent faults, and closes the hand against 
its help, while it sings the gospel of the Gadgrinds — 
'As it was and ever shall be, Amen.' Labor itself," 
continues this learned divine, " is not wholly responsi- 
ble for its own faults. These faults spring largely out 
of defective social conditions in which the working man 
is placed. The inefficiency of labor is by no means 
the sole fault of the individual laborer. Heredity has 
bankrupted him before he started on his career. One 
who sees much of the lower grades of labor ceases to 
wonder why the children turn out worthless." " The 
tenements of New York are enough alone to take the 
life out of labor. City factories often are not much 
better. The quality of the food sold in the poorer 
sections of our cities are defectively nutritious, even 
where they are not positively harmful. This could be 
largely rectified by the State and city authorities. 



34$ THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Government guards carefully the rights both of labor 
and capital by an immense amount of legislation and 
administration. Health is the laborer's source of wealth, 
but it is by no means so carefully looked after as 
are the resources of the other two factors of produc- 
tion. We have in none of the States of. our Union 
any such legislation as that of the thorough system 
of factory laws in England. Whatever may be said as 
to the interference on the part of legislation with the 
rights of capital the sufficient answer is that the whole 
advance of society has been a constant interference 
by legislation with the merely natural action of the 
law of supply and demand, and only thus can be 
secured amelioration in the condition of the problem 
of labor and capital. The State's first concern is to 
see her citizens healthful, vigorous, wealth-producing 
factors, and to this end bad sanitary conditions, which 
undermine the ' health capital ' of labor, imperatively 
demand correction." 

Doctor Newton urges with much clearness and great 
force the need for an education that will develope 
whatever potencies may be latent. Inefficiency will 
rarely correct itself. Superior ability must train it into 
better power. He makes the pertinent inquiry, " Where 
is there any provision for such an education ? Ignorant 
parents can hardly be expected to teach their children 
better skill than they have themselves. The old system 
of apprenticeship has almost completely died out. No 
other system of industrial training has come into 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 349 

general use to take the place of home training and 
of apprenticeship. We have but few attempts to 
combine general and intellectual education with practical 
training and handicrafts. Our common schools have, 
until lately, signally passed by the whole field of 
practical education. The schools which are supposed 
to be intended for the mass of the people, and which 
are supplied at the public cost, have made next to no 
provision for the practical training of boys and girls 
to become self-supporting men and women, wealth 
producing citizens, while the whole curriculum of the 
school system tends to a disproportionate intellectuality, 
and to an alienation from all manual labor. That 
efforts to encourage industrial education would pay the 
State is best seen in the example of England. The 
International Exhibition of 185 1 revealed to England 
its complete inferiority to several Continental countries 
in art studies, and the cause of that inferiority in the 
absence of skilled workmen. The government at once 
began to study the problem, and out of this study 
arose the Kensington Museum with its art? schools, 
and similar institutions throughout the country, which 
have already made quick and gratifying returns in the 
improvement of the national art industries, and in the 
vast enrichment of the trade growing therefrom." 

I again call attention to the invaluable testimony 
of Mr, Mather. He said : " I came to the United 
States to ascertain, on behalf of the Royal Commis- 
sion on Technical Education, what are the opportuni- 
21 



350 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ties offered to the people of this country to acquire 
industrial training and technical knowledge of the va- 
rious occupations and industries that are followed 
here ; and generally, What opportunities are afforded 
for science teaching, the teaching of the elements of 
the sciences that underlie all the industries of your 
country, as they do of all countries ? I may say that 
the appointment of this Royal Commission to inquire 
into the Technical Education of all the countries in the 
world, arose out of the fact that in England we have 
not many opportunities nor institutions which afford to 
our working population, or even to our middle classes, 
the means of acquiring a knowledge of the sciences be- 
fore they enter the usual occupations of industrial life. 

" We have felt for the last ten years very acutely the 
competition which has sprung up in all parts of the world 
with English industries, and it has been supposed by some 
public men, and by large numbers of the community 
generally, that our manufactures of the simplest kind 
would for the future have to yield to a higher class of 
production, if we are to hold our place in the world, as 
purveyors of clothing and the various articles which we 
have hitherto shipped from England. The countries of 
Europe have, of course, ceased to take from us gray 
cloth and the simplest form of machinery and have 
in a hundred ways ceased to need our services in 
matters for which, twenty years ago they were abso- 
lutely dependent upon us. 

" In consequence f oi thi^ v we .find it necessary to im- 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 35 1 

prove the taste in all articles we manufacture, and 
to bring to bear a higher knowledge of the scientific 
laws that underlie all the industries, and to educate 
our people into still greater skill — a skill derived from a 
higher intelligence. On the continent of Europe indus- 
trial and technical schools have been in existence — 
in Germany, France, and Switzerland particularly — for 
a considerable number of years, and the benefits ac- 
cruing from these have at last invited our attention. 
We have an idea in England that America excels, in 
all the mechanic arts, any other country in the world. 
Her wonderful genius in the direction of original de- 
sign — invention — and the excellence of her manufac- 
tures in regard to everything mechanical, have attracted 
our attention for a number of years, and we are 
curious to know how it is that the people of America 
have arrived at such excellence and proficiency. 

" The industries of England have flourished chiefly, 
hitherto, upon the great demand which all the world 
has made upon us for our products, and on the fa- 
cility with which, owing to the abundance of mate- 
rial we have manufactured all our machinery and tex- 
tile goods. 

" During the last ten years that demand has very 
much decreased and we have now to pass on to a 
different kind of manufacture. Our people cannot re- 
spond to the higher demand. We have not had the 
art schools or science schools to enable them to 
understand the laws as principles upon which this 



352 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

higher industry is based. In order to meet this we 
hope to establish certain institutions — call them technical 
schools — in which, not trades shall be taught, but the 
science that underlies every industry shall be imparted 
to the children at the same time that they are 
somewhat trained in industrial skill to manipulate, 
to pass through, and understand the operations which 
are necessary for the various kinds of manufactures 
that we desire to improve." 

Mr. Mather further stated that in his travels through 
the United States in pursuit of his inquiries he had 
visited about twenty cities and over one hundred 
institutions of various kinds, particularly schools and 
colleges, and he thought he had a fair notion of 
what we are doing in the direction of education. His 
opinion is that it would have an immense effect upon 
the condition of the working classes if we would alter 
the methods of teaching in our primary schools, and 
very much also in our higher schools. He thinks the 
whole tendency of our teaching is the imparting of 
only temporary information to the children. After 
having given reading, writing and arithmetic, we then 
pile upon them a line of studies which do not enter their 
lives or pursuits and we utterly ignore in all our public 
schools that element of industrial training which seems 
so necessary for every people, particularly like the 
Americans, so mechanical and industrial in their occu- 
pations. 

He states that he finds that only about 10 per 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 353 

cent, of our school population ever pass into the high 
schools; that practically at fifteen years of age, the 
contents of our primary schools pass away into the 
various industrial occupations. He thinks we spend a 
great deal of time on the refinements of grammar 
and of literature, education of very little consequence 
to them when they pass into their life employments, 
and during that time they have no opportunity of 
acquiring knowledge of the natural laws or elements 
of science, chemistry, natural philosophy, or the var- 
ious sciences that underlie all the industries that 
abound in the country, and into one or another of 
which these children are passing. "That is all a dark 
and unknown land to them, and it is a misfortune to 
the working classses of this .country that their edu- 
cation runs so much to the side of literature and 
not to the industrial and scientific." 

To illustrate how readily children can acquire such 
information, Mr. Mather states that if you examine a 
boy of twelve, or fourteen years of age in any of the 
new schools in England, you will find that he will, at 
that age, know as much about the elements of science, 
natural philosophy, simple mathematics, mechanical 
drawing, chemistry, electricity, magnetism, and all these 
general elements, as many of our boys and girls do in 
the high schools when they are sixteen and seventeen 
years of age. Without teaching them a trade or any 
particular handicraft, all the tendency of the teaching 
is to make them either commercially a success, or in- 



354 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

dustrially a success, in the way of having some scientific 
knowledge, which they can utilize as they pass into 
their various occupations. With these general acquire- 
ments that qualify them for different pursuits they 
can find employment elsewhere when any trade, or 
industry becomes over stocked with workingmen. Mr. 
Mather says that the industrial education is quite as 
beneficial to the intellect as the pursuit of the studies 
in the literary department. It has proved already that 
the proper method of training the intellect is to join 
industrial work with the teachings of the school. We 
find the boys are more capable of understanding the 
oral teaching and what they read. Their minds are 
made more receptive and reflective by the fact that 
they have depended more upon themselves, and put 
into operation the knowledge that they have before 
acquired in the schools. Mr. Mather stated that he 
had travelled a good deal in France, Germany, Switzer- 
land, Russia, and all over the continent of Europe and 
observed what was going on there. That the op- 
portunities in France, Switzerland and Germany for 
technical training have of late years become quite 
extensive. That our country possesses already a con- 
siderable number of very remarkable technical schools 
which certainly are not surpassed by any in Efirope. 
They are schools, however, that are not available for 
the working classes, as are those of France, Germany 
and Switzerland, and what little has been done in 
England. But for the training of skillful managers, 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 355 

foremen, and even proprietors of large industries about 
a dozen of the schools and colleges of this country 
are not surpassed by anything in Europe. The American 
mind is essentially rfiore practical than the German 
and the French and in these schools we see the effect 
of the difference. They keep their eyes fixed upon 
one thing — that these young men are to become 
masters or captains of industry, and therefore the 
teaching has a strong practical bias. The State universi- 
ties in this country — those coming under the govern- 
ment grant — would of course become excellent sources 
for technical and industrial training, which might be 
utilized largely without costing much money, either to 
the State or to the community. All we want is a 
shuffling of' the cards to alter the curriculum of the 
various institutions. Mr. Mather thinks there is more 
spent in this country than in any country in the world 
for colleges, universities, and our public school system. 
He does not think our working classes have anything 
at all to complain of in regard to education, excepting 
that it does not have a strong enough and close enough 
relation to the industries which the working classes 
pursue. In this respect they have a right to claim a 
revision of the course of instructions in our public schools. 
Mr. Mather has observed, that in America, as in 
England, that boys and girls rather seek polite em- 
ployments — to be clerks, or to be in stores, or some 
work that does not involve ordinary manuel labor. 
They find manual labor uninteresting, as they are sure 



356 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

to find it when they have no knowledge whatever of 
the meaning of all this labor, or of the scientific 
truths underlying it all ; their reflective powers are 
not interested ; hence the manual labor becomes a 
drudgery, and they leave those industries if they have 
opportunity. We do not want our public school system 
to give the children of the working people the idea 
that labor is low, vulgar or degrading. Mr. Mather 
testifies to the happy effects of a reduction of working 
hours in England from ten to nine hours per day. He 
believes that all American working people have greater 
activity, greater nervous energy than the English, and 
can do more work, and do more work from the intense 
desire to accomplish more. They work harder while at 
work, and he says that nine hours of labor* here, with 
the intensity of intelligence and energy which our 
people display would count for more than ten hours 
of the work of his people Eight hours production by 
the American laborer would be equivalent to nine 
hours production of the English laborer. 

The mistake of the working classes here is that 
they cling to the industries in which so much skill is 
required. More of them should be in the fields, which 
have been so manifestly provided by nature. 

Another difficulty he mentions as growing out of our 
development, is, that we have artificially developed our 
industries — that we are going at a rate that is not 
natural, we are forcing all round ; that on the question 
of manufacture here in New England the system 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 357 

adopted of protecting textile industries, has, of course, 
enabled manufactures to get very large profits in a 
very short time, and attracted employers to invest 
and has at last developed a competition here greater 
than in England, with all the world to compete with ; 
that in England they are right down on the ground, 
and thrown on the fact that they must produce a 
more artistic article to make themselves felt in the fu- 
ture in the markets of the world. 

The witness stated another fact that in this country 
waste of raw materials is the normal condition. We 
waste our forests, our metals, our food, our drink. 
There is so much waste it is not noticed. Mr. Mather 
closes his testimony by saying "that society in America, 
in all the great centers of industry, has a duty laid 
upon it that it is not performing in the full sense of 
its responsibilities. That in the great corporations the 
shares are held by wealthy persons representing prob- 
ably the culture of our cities and occuping public posi- 
tions and public opinion should be directed toward the 
amelioration of the condition of the working classes. 
There must be an acknowledgment of the fact that em- 
ployers of large classes of working people are bound 
to regard those people on the social as well as the 
industrial side." 

Upon the all-important subject of change in our 
educational system as indispensable in the work of 
amelioration in the condition of all our working people, 
the Washington Post had an editorial recently so full of 



358 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

good sense, that I ask to reproduce it in support of 
my line of thought. The following is the editorial : 

" It is unmistakeable that the public schools of this 
country are at present in a state of lively ferment 
and even of transition. Causes are at work calculated 
to terminate in a revolution in methods of teaching 
and even in the character of the thing taught. The 
most potent of these causes is a growing conscious- 
ness that schools do not, as at present constituted, 
produce the results to be expected from them — that 
books are quite too dominant, that the pupil emerges 
from the current scheme of ' education ' scarcely better 
than when he entered to win his bread and cope with 
the hard realities of active life. The new education 
which has been begun and is sweeping over the land, 
has in view, if not primarily, at least constantly, the 
training of the child's hand as thoroughly as his 
brain, the development of skill, and the necessity of 
making a probably bread-winner of every pupil. In 
the coming education mechanical tools will be in- 
troduced to the school-room, or to contiguous rooms 
set apart for the purpose, and the child will be taught 
their use and character, and, so far as practicable, his 
own tastes and tendencies will be studied by the 
teacher, and his bent ascertained so that he may not 
go forth into an inhospitable world both blind and 
shackled. 

" The very first necessity in the true training of a 
child is that he or she may be taught to be self- 
supporting ; in the current scheme of miscalled educa- 
tion it is the very last thing thought of. The child 
who is going out hungry and naked into life is 
taught — not how to feed and clothe himself by minister- 
ing to the wants of the world — but he is taught 
grammar, and algebra, and history, that to him have 
little more than a sentimental value. Nature has fixed 
hard conditions to existence, she says to every penni- 
less child * You shall not live in comfort unless you 
learn to do some difficult thing which the world wants 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 359 

done and is willing to pay for.' And, in answer to 
this inexorable law, we send our children to school to 
learn how to solve mathematical problems and how to 
parse ungrammatical sentences in Paradise Lost. What 
a mockery it is. 

"Let us turn our faces toward the future and give 
the children of the next generation a chance. It will 
be a blessing to all. It will solve the problem of the 
'tramp' by evolution; it will make all the conditions 
of life easier ; it will exalt our civilization, and even 
benefit laboring men by increasing the total sum of 
industry and diminishing the number of sluggards whom 
they must now support." 

It is manifest that the laboring population of this 
country is discontented. They know that they are 
the producers of our great wealth. Their labor is their 
capital and their only means of support. They must 
have employment or starve. Idleness insures the loss 
of shelter and inability to obtain food and clothing for 
themselves and their families. This absolute dependence 
upon employment for existence, puts the laborer to 
great disadvantage in his contest with those who 
want his labor, in setting the price or wages to be 
paid and in the free exercise of his suffrage and 
other rights of citizenship. As a rule the necessity 
of the laborer for employment is much greater and 
more imperious than the necessity of those who want 
labor. When the struggle between capital and labor 
becomes a question of endurance it soon ends in the 
submission of labor, and the necessity that makes the 
submission compulsory breeds discontent, and sometimes 
the sense of wrong makes the helpless man desperate 



360 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

and drives him to mob violence for revenge. It is 
useless to attempt to conceal the fact, that the labor- 
ers or working people of this country look upon cap- 
ital accumulated in large corporations and individual 
ownership by the operations of class legislation, with 
a great deal of suspicion and distrust. The laborer 
feels that these vast corporations, and the large num- 
ber of individuals with their unknown millions of 
wealth in whose service he has been employed, have 
not made with him anything like a fair division of 
this immense joint product of labor and capital. The 
laborer feels that there is something wrong in his 
having so little to show for his work and his em- 
ployer having so much to show for his money. The 
general conviction of the laboring people is that the 
state of things that works out such unequal results 
and conditions is radically wrong somehow and some- 
where, and they want a remedy — a change. When 
you ask them what remedy they have to propose, as 
I have often done, they are utterly unable to give 
any valuable information. They can present moving 
pictures of their condition of dependence and privation 
and of the methods and practices of their employers, 
which they condemn, but when it comes to the ques- 
tion what do you propose — what power has the gov- 
ernment to relieve you, they are all at sea without 
rudder or compass. It is a fearful problem. With all 
its complications and perils it confronts our govern- 
ment and country. It must be met and solved as I 



LABOR AND CAPITAL. 36 1 

have confidence it will be wisely and properly on 
Democratic principles without paternalism in our gov- 
ernment, and without revolutionary methods destructive 
of personal rights and Republican government. 



CHAPTER V. 



PENSIONS. 



Hon. Courtland C. Matson, 

Chairman of the Committee on Invalid Pensions, National 

House of Representatives. 

''THE subject of Pensions is one of increasing importance 
to all the people, and has been made so by reason 
of the rapid increase in the amount appropriated. Politi- 
cal issues have never been made relating to this subject. 
Both parties have seemed to be anxious to meet the 
demands of those who have asked for pensions and have 
been willing to go just as far in that direction as it 
was in the power of the Government to pay. The 
pensioners themselves, however, are more interested than 
any one else in wise and conservative legislation and all 
must be ready to concede that if demands were made 
that cannot be met a reaction in the very favorable 
public sentiment heretofore existing is liable at any 
time to occur. It has been asserted that our Govern- 
ment pays now, annually, more for pensions than all 
the other civilized governments. Whether true or 
not it ought to be remembered that this expense upon 
our people does away with the necessity of maintain- 
ing a large and standing army, for our reliance in time 
of danger must be upon our volunteer force. On the 

other hand it ought to be remembered that the rights 
(362) 




COURTLAND C. MATSOX. 



PENSIONS. 365 

of the tax-payer cannot be recklessly disregarded to 
the extent that this payment of pensions would become 
burdensome and offensive to the majority of the people. 
It is frequently asserted that fraud permeates the 
whole business of pension claims and some have what 
they regard a well-founded belief to this effect. 

A careful investigation of the subject would satisfy 
the unprejudiced mind that this condition of things 
does not exist. That there are frauds, and have been 
frauds, in this matter of pensions, no one will deny, 
but they do not prevail to that extent that many 
believe. It has been well for all concerned that no 
political issue has been founded upon the subject of 
pensions, and it will be well for the pensioners par- 
ticularly that such shall continue to be the case. 
Nearly $80,000,000 a year are now being paid on this 
account. Vast numbers of claims are pending asking 
that pensions be increased, and so it is likely to 
happen next year, and for some years to come, that 
the amount will continue, as it has for the past few 
years, to increase, until probably at least $100,000,000 
per year will be paid to the people for pensions. 
This sum is likely to be paid without reference to any 
additional legislation and is more than is paid by the 
Government on any other account, not excepting even 
the interest upon the public debt. 

Legislation has been suggested which has at first 
seemed to be extravagant, but it has been upon inves- 
tigation easily justified, not only by the justice of the 



7,66 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

demand, but by the anomalous condition of the public 
treasury. A people who are willing that the bond- 
holder who furnished his money only to carry on the 
war should be paid long afterwards upon a basis 
which greatly enhanced the value of his security, and 
at an expense upon the people not contemplated by 
the framers of the law under which these bonds were 
issued, will not complain if full justice is done to the 
soldiers and all their demands growing out of the wars. 
The policy of the Democratic Party has been one of 
liberality and justice to the soldiers. As the adminis- 
tration of Pension Affairs during the incumbency of 
General Black, as commissioner, clearly shows, more has 
been paid than ever before in a like period and the 
list has been increased in numbers and in value each 
year under Democratic rule. The annual value of a 
pension has been largely increased during this period. 
The present laws relating to pensions are mainly of 
Republican origin and were enacted during the time 
when the Republicans had undisputed control of the 
Government. If there is any just ground of complaint 
of the laws, the Republicans are responsible for them. 
At no period during the war, or since, ha* the Demo- 
cratic Party had the power in both branches of Con- 
gress, and the Presidency, so as to be enabled to 
enact a law, while the Republicans had undisputed 
control for ten years after the war and again during 
the period from the 4th day of March, 1881 to the 
4th day of March 1883. 



PENSIONS. 367 

A source of great injustice to claimants for pen- 
sions maintained during all the years of the Republican 
Administrations, was that rule which required that a 
condition of soundness, prior to enlistment should be 
proved in order to entitle a soldier to a pension. 
This has recently been remedied so that the law 
requires, in the adjudication of these claims, that the 
soldier should be considered sound at the time of en- 
listment. Many cases remain upon the files of the 
Pension Office which were rejected for this reason and 
among them the claims of soldiers who had served 
three or four years. One of the prolific causes of the 
increase in the number of pensions allowed has been 
the abrogation of this unjust rule so long adhered to 
by the Republican party. The bitterness shown to^ 
wards the President on account of his vetoes of private 
pension bills cannot be justified. It may be that an 
honest difference of opinion can exist as to the. merits 
of some of these bills, but the abuse and hostile 
criticisms of the Chief Executive so freely indulged in, 
are without reason and are intended for political effect 
only. The allegation that the tone of his veto 
messages is unkind and unfriendly to the soldiers can 
be successfully denied. He gives his reasons for his 
objections to a bill when he returns it to the House 
in which it originated, because he is required, by the 
Constitution, so to do ; and these reasons are in tone 
very much like the adverse reports on pension claims 

made by the Committees of both Houses of Congress. 
22 



368 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

A comparison between these adverse reports made to 
the Senate and to the House — many of them made by 
Republicans — with the vetoes of private pension bills 
by the President, will show at once the same tone uf 
expression and kind of language, adverse to the 
claimants necessarily, which politicians denounce in Mr. 
Cleveland's messages. Indeed, it can well be said that 
in giving reasons for an adverse decision it would be 
quite impossible to state the facts in a way that 
would be agreeable to the claimants. This objection 
to the President will be pressed upon the ex-soldiers 
in the coming campaign for the purpose of appealing 
to their prejudices and not to their reason and it is 
hoped by this appeal to induce Democratic ex-soldiers 
to vote for the Republican candidates. It is a false 
issue and will count for but little with those who 
have political principles. The fair-minded and in- 
telligent survivors of our late Civil War who stood on 
the* side of the Union must well understand this 
specious and deceitful appeal, and they will not allow 
their votes to be controlled by such considerations. 
Great questions of public policy, involving the interests 
of all the people, are more likely to control those 
who have given the best evidence of their patriotism 
by rendering valuable military service to their country, 
and when it is ascertained by them that during the 
three years and five months of President Cleveland's 
Administration nearly as many private pension bills 
have become laws as were enacted during the entire 



PENSIONS. 369 

period of Republican Administration, they will see that 
this charge of unfriendliness to the Soldier falls harm- 
less at the feet of our Chief Executive. A conspicuous 
fact in relation to this matter is that this President 
is the first one in many years who has scrutinized 
private legislation, and he has not only fearlessly 
exercised the duty imposed upon him by the Constitu- 
tion, but, in all his administration, he has shown a 
fidelity to duty and has industriously discharged that 
great trust in a manner unprecedented in the history 
of the Government. The complaints against the Presi- 
dent in this regard are made in general terms and 
when made they ought to be met with a demand 
that the author of the charge should specify the ground 
upon which he makes it ; require him to point out 
what veto it is that he complains of. When this is 
done, I think it can be safely asserted that no reasona- 
ble complaint can be upheld. It should be added 
here in justice to all concerned in this kind of legisla- 
tion, that Congress is so overwhelmed with bills of 
this class that it is quite impossible to give them due 
consideration, and it should also be said in this con- 
nection that for the want of attention upon the part 
of the authors of these special bills, it is not always 
the case that the best ones are brought to a legisla- 
tive conclusion. 

Another striking fact in this connection is that of 
the number of private bills vetoed in this, the 50th, 
Congress, not one has been reported back to either 



370 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

House from the Committee to which it was referred. 
The vetoes have been acquiesced in by all. Many of 
these vetoes were based upon technical grounds, such 
as a defect in the bill , that the claim was pending 
in the Pension Bureau and undetermined there ; that 
the claim had been allowed in the Pension Bureau ; 
a mistake in the name ; that bills had been passed 
for the benefit of the same person and for the same 
purpose ; that the party had a perfect remedy in the 
Pension Office which had never been tried ; that the 
bill would reduce the pension which the proposed 
beneficiary was receiving under the general law ; and 
to save arrearages which the beneficiary was entitled 
to under the .general law. 

One of the first acts of President Cleveland, after 
he assumed his great trust, was the appointment of 
the present able, liberal, patriotic and earnest Com- 
missioner of Pensions — Gen. John C. Black — and he 
has had full control of that office since the 17th day 
of March, 1885. I purpose to submit here a state- 
ment showing the work of the Pension Office during 
the last three years of Republican Administration and 
the succeeding three years of the administration, of 
that office under President Cleveland. I do this for 
the purpose of comparison and because I believe that 
it furnishes the very best proof of the friendliness of 
this Administration towards the ex-Union soldier ; and 
I also submit a statement bhowing the net increase of 
the pension roll, and of the funds disbursed on account 
of pensions for the same period* 



PENSIONS. 371 



Last three years of Republican administration. 
Claims admitted, fiscal year 1883 : 

Original 38,162 

Increase 22,746 

Miscellaneous.. ...• 796 

Total 61,704 

Claims admitted, fiscal year 1884: 

Original 34, 192 

Increase 22,517 

Miscellaneous... 1,221 

Total 57.930 

Claims admitted, fiscal year 1885 : 

Original ." 35.7°7 

Increase 33-985 

Miscellaneous 1,835 

Total 71-587 

Grand total, claims admitted for three years 191,221 

First three years of Democratic Administration. 
Claims admitted, fiscal year 1886 : 

Original 40,857 

Increase 113,271 

Miscellaneous 2,229 

Total 156,357 

Claims admitted, fiscal year 1887 : 

Original 55.194 

Increase 32,107 

Miscellaneous. 2,707 

Total 90,008 

Claims admitted, fiscal year 1888 : 

Original 60,173 

Increase 35795 

Miscellaneous I 7. II 9 

Total 113,087, 

Grand total claims admitted for three years 359-45 2 

Excess of cetificates issued during first three fiscal years 
of Democratic administration of the Pension Bureau over 
the number issued during the last three years of Repub- 
lican administration 168,231 



372 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Net increase to Pension-roll. 

Fiscal year 1883 17,961 

Fiscal year 1884 19,098 

Fiscal year 1885 22,369 

Total 59,428 

Fiscal year 1886 20,658 

Fiscal year 1887 40,224 

Fiscal year 1888 (approximate) 44.993 

Total ...105,875 

Excess of net increase during first three years of Democratic ad- 
ministration over that of the last three years of Republican 

administration 46,447 

Funds disbursed on account of Pensions. 

Fiscal year 1883 $60,431,972 85 

Fiscal year 1884 57.273,536.73 

Fiscal year 1885, 65,693,706.72 

Total 183,399,216.31 

Fiscal year 1886 $64,584,270.45 

Fiscal year 1887 74,815,486.85 

Fiscal year 1888 (approximate) 78,000,000.00 

Total ....217,399,757.30 

Excess of disbursements during first three years of Democratic 
administration over the amount disbursed during last 
three years of Republican administration, $34,000,540.99 

This record of what has been accomplished in the 
way of substantial benefits under Democratic rule will 
be much more satisfactory than the record of fulsome 
promises recklessly disregarded by the Republicans. It 
is taken from the official files, and has been supplied 
to me by the Hon. Commissioner of Pensions. It 
needs no comment. It speaks for itself and is enough 
to set at rest the fears that political alarmists may 
try to awaken for partisan purposes and for use in 
the present hotly-contested campaign. Where is the 
evidence of the unfriendliness so freely charged? It is 
easy enough to make the charge, but where is the 



pensions. 373 

proof of it ? Figures taken from the official reports 
of the Commissioner of Pensions, and found upon the 
books of the Auditing officers of the Pension Office, 
show that the cost per case for adjudication, has 
been- much less under this Administration than under 
previous Administrations, and a striking fact in this 
line is an exhibit showing that the cost of the ex- 
amination of a case in the Special Examiner's division 
is now one-fourth what it was under the Republicans ; 
and this, too, notwithstanding the fact that the claims 
last examined are the most difficult to adjudicate be- 
cause of the greater lapse of time. Nor has there 
been any charge that the officers of this force of 
Special Examiners have been used for partisan purposes 
under this Administration while it was shown, by a 
Congressional investigation near the close of the 48th 
Congress, that, in the campaign of 1884, this corps of 
officers was used largely for political work, and the 
worst outrages upon the rights of claimants were 
perpetrated by those sworn officers of the law, in 
order to further the ends of the Republican party, by 
whose favor they were placed in office. 

I have thus briefly and hastily outlined the position 
of the Democratic party in its relation to pensions. 
It may be relied upon to continue a wise, conservative, 
liberal policy in this respect, and the soldiers of the 
Republic can well afford to rely upon its record, rather 
than upon the extravagant promises made by its 
political opponents. 



CHAPTER VI. 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 



Hon. William R. Cox, 
Late Chairman of the Committee on Civil Service % 
National House of Representatives. 

u TTONEST reform in the Civil Service has been in- 
augurated and maintained by President Cleveland, 
and he has brought the public service to the highest 
standard of efficiency, not only by rule and precept, 
but by the example of his own untiring and unselfish 
administration of public affairs." — Dem. Nat. Platform, 1888. 
An eminent author says : " Examine History, for it 
is Philosophy teaching by Experience." It is proposed 
to apply this test in a' brief presentation of the 
treatment of Civil Service Reform by the Republican 
and Democratic parties and thus demonstrate which 
has been true to its professions in its dealings with 
the public. At the close of the late war the Re- 
publican party was panoplied with all the power and 
machinery of the general government. The public 
expenditures had been greatly augumented ; the mul- 
tiplication of offices needlessly increased ; and the 
wild hunt after office had introduced demoralization 
and corruption into all departments of the government. 
Soon the common sense of the American people, 
whose discriminating mind and unimpassioned judgment, 
(374) 




WILLIAM R. COX. 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRARIC PARTY. 377 

which have ever proved their shield in time of danger, 
demanded changes in the administration of their gov- 
ernmental affairs. They at first naturally sought to 
secure these necessary reforms through the agency of 
the party then in power. So universal was the demand 
for reform that the mere politician and place-man were 
unable to resist it. Therefore, every National Re- 
publican Convention and every President elected by 
this party gave prompt assurance of a ready com- 
pliance with this popular demand. In 1871, a law 
was enacted by Congress which provided for the ap- 
pointment of a Civil Service Commission, which was 
clothed with ample power to make all needful rules 
and regulations for carrying the law into effect. But 
this act, like Dead Sea fruit, proved a delusion and 
a snare, for two Congresses refused to make any ap- 
propriation for its execution, while, in the meantime, 
the public service became more and more corrupt. 

The tendencies of the Republican party were never 
more forcibly illustrated than by a distinguished mem- 
ber of their own party whose arraignment was made, 
we must suppose, after careful consideration of their 
damaging character and prompted alone by a high 
sense of duty. They should never be forgotten by an 
outraged but too confiding public. On the trial of 
Belknap, Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts., employs the 
following language in a speech he then delivered : 

" My own public life has been a very brief and insig- 
nificant one, extending little beyond the duration of a 



378 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

single term of senatorial office ; but in that brief 
period, I have seen five judges of a high court of 
the United States driven from office by threats of 
impeachment for corruption or maladministration. I 
have heard the taunt, from friendliest lips that when 
the United States presented herself in the East to take 
part with the civilized world in generous competition 
in the arts of life, the only product of her institu- 
tions in which she surpassed all others beyond question 
was her corruption. I have seen in the State of the 
Union, foremost in power and wealth, four judges of 
her courts impeached for corruption, and the political 
administration of her chief city become a disgrace and 
a by- word throughout the world. I have seen the 
Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs in the 
House, now a distinguished member of this court, 
rise in his place and demand the expulsion of four of 
his associates for making sale of their official privilege 
of selecting the youths to be educated at our great 
military school. When the greatest railroad of the 
world, binding together the continent and uniting the 
two great seas which wash ouf shores, was finished, 
I have seen our national triumph and exultation turned 
to bitterness and shame by the unanimous reports of 
three Committees of Congress — two of the House and 
one here — that every step of that mighty enterprise 
had been taken in fraud. I have heard in the highest 
places the shameless doctrine avowed by men grown 
old in public office that the true way by which 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 379 

power should be gained in the Republic is to bribe 
the people with the offices created for their service, 
and the true end for which it should be used, when 
gained, is the promotion of selfish ambition and the 
gratification of personal revenge. I have heard that 
suspicion haunts the footsteps of trusted companions 
of the President." 

A Democratic member in the 48th Congress, after 
quoting the foregoing remarks of the Senator from 
Massachusetts, made use of the following language : 
"And he lived to see more. He lived to see a Vice- 
President of the United States driven in disgrace and 
humiliation from his exalted position in the other end 
of the Capitol. He lived to see a President exalted 
to high station by such questionable means that not 
all the honors heaped upon him could command the 
respect of even his own party, and who even while 
living is mentioned only to mark an epoch in our 
history which we- would gladly forget. He lived to 
see the senators of the Empire State indignantly resign 
their seats in the Senate in consequence of the dis- 
tribution of office. He lived to see what was worse 
than all this, the President of the United States 
assassinated in consequence of the wrangle over spoils 
of office while a wail of horror and sympathy swept 
over the whole civilized world." 

Republican Party Assessments. 

Notwithstanding the fact that the reckless spoils 
system of the Republican party called for such a 



380 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY, 

merited exposure as was administered by one of their 
distinguished Senators from Massachusetts, from whose 
speech I have quoted, and notwithstanding this system 
had culminated in the assassination of their President 
and other evils to which I have adverted, the party 
continued in its demoralizing practices and ridiculed 
the idea of reform. The Republican Congressional 
Committee, from the prominence and ability of its 
members, may be presumed to have voiced the popular 
sentiment of the party. It was composed of the follow- 
ing members, whose names are given. that no injustice 
may be done : Jay A. Hubbell, Chairman ; D. B. 
Henderson, Secretary ; Executive Committee, Hon. W. 
B. Allison, Hon. Eugene Hale, . Hon. Nelson W. 
Aldrich, Hon. Frank Hiscock, Hon. George M. Robeson, 
Hon. William McKinley, Jr., Hon. George R. Davis, 
Hon. Horatio G. Fisher, Hon. Horace F. Page, Hon. 
W. H. Calkins, Hon. Thomas Ryan, Hon. William D. 
Washburn, Hon. L. C. Houck, Hon. R. T. . Van Horn, 
Hon. Orlando Hubbs. 

jfay HubbelVs First Letter. 

Headquarters of the Republican 
Congressional Committee, 

520 Thirteenth street, N. W. 
Washington D. C> May 15, 1882. 
Sir: This committee is organized for the protection 
of the interests of the Republican party in each of the 
Congressional districts of the Union. In order that it 
may* prepare print and circulate suitable documents 
illustrating the issues' which distinguished the Re- 
publican party from any other and may meet all proper 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 38 1 

expenses incident to the campaign, the committee feels 
authorized to apply to all citizens whose principles or 
interests are involved in the struggle. Under the cir- 
cumstances in which the country finds itself placed, 
the committee believes that you will esteem it both 
a privilege and a pleasure to make to its funds a con- 
tribution, which it is hoped may not be less than $ . 

The committee is authorized to state that such voluntary 
contribution from persons employed in the service of 
the United States will not be objected to in any 
official quarter. 

The labors of the committee will effect the result 
of the Presidential election in 1884 as well as the Con- 
gressional struggle ; and it may therefore reasonably 
hope to have the sympathy and assistance of all who 
look with dread upon the possibility of the restoration 
of the Democratic party to the control of the Government. 

Please make prompt and favorable response to this 
letter by bank-check or draft or postal money order, 
payable to the order of Jay A. HuBBELL, acting 
treasurer, P. O. lock box 589, Washington, D. C. 

By order of the committee. 

D. B. Henderson, Secretary. 

The effect, if not the intent, of this letter was to 
blackmail the employees of the government. It was 
without discrimination as to sex, age, or political con- 
victions. Even 'the Democratic employees of the United 
States Senate were served with these notices as if it 
were presumed every employee of the government was 
legitimate prey to the party in power. It is well 
known that in the first session of the 47th Congress 
in Washington, lobbyists and jobbers thronged the 
avenues of the Capitol, and 1 special legislation, the 
creature of favoritism, held high carnival while the 
Republican leaders were holding up with dread " the 



382 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

possibility of the restoration of the Democratic party 
to the control of the government." Not satisfied with 
the first appeal, we were favored with a second epistle 
from the Stalwart leader, whose first did not appear 
to have accomplished all that his sanguine hopes desired. 
Jay HubbelVs Second Letter. 

Washington, D. C, August 15, 1882. 

SIR — Your failure to respond to the circular of May 
15, 1882, sent to you by this committee, is noted 
with surprise. It is hoped that the only reason for 
such failure is that the matter escaped your attention 
owing to press of other cares. 

Great political battles cannot be won in this way. 
This committee cannot hope to succeed in the pend- 
ing struggle if those most directly benefited by success 
are unwilling or neglect to aid in a substantial manner. 

We are on the skirmish line of 1884, with a conflict 
before us, this fall, of great moment to the Republic, 
and you must know that a repulse now is full of 
danger to the next Presidential campaign. 

Unless you think that our grand old party ought 
not to succeed, help it now in its struggle to build 
up a new South, in which there shall be, as in the 
North, a free ballot and a fair count, and to maintain 
such hold in the North as shall insure good govern- 
ment to the country. 

It is hoped that by return mail you will send a 
voluntary contribution equal to two per cent, of your 
annual compensation, as a substantial proof of your 
earnest desire for the success of the Rebublican party 
this fall, transmitting by draft or postal money order, 
payable to the order of JAY A. HUBBELL, Acting 
Treasurer, post orifice lock box 589, Washington, D. C. 

Nor were the Committee satisfied with letters alone, 

but employed collectors who visited the departments 

and importuned the employees of the government who 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 383 

had not paid the assessment. In violation of the 
rules prohibiting all others having business with these 
clerks seeing them during business hours, the agents 
of the committee, who received a percentage on their 
collections, were allowed ingress and egress at all 
hours under the penalty against the officials refusing 
such privileges of being considered indifferent to their 
party's success, and treated accordingly. 
Another Circular, 
I will not pursue this Committee in its ramifications 
through the several States, but content myself with 
citing the fact that Virginia office-holders were turned 
over to the tender mercies of the re-adjusted Mahone, 
and with quoting the following frank and candid cir- 
cular issued by one of the agents of the Committee 
in the strong Republican State of Pennsylvania. It 

read as follows : 

Philadelphia, October, 25, 1880. 

" DEAR Sir : Our books show that you have paid no 
heed to either of the requests of the committee for 
funds. The time for action is short. I need not say 
to you that an important canvass like the one now 
being made in a State like Pennsylvania requires a 
great outlay of money, and we look to you as one 
of the Federal beneficiaries to help bear the burden. 

Two per cent, of your salary is . Please remit 

promptly. 

"At the close of the campaign we shall place a list 
of those who have not paid in the hands of the head 
of the department you are in. 

Truly yours, 

John Cessna, Chairman. 

In this age of progress, we live so much in the 



384 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

present that we are not disposed to profit as much 
as we should by the bitter experiences of the past. 
An Irishman was found beating an offensive animal 
which had been killed, and upon it being inquired 
did he not know that the animal was dead and why 
he was beating it, replied, "In faith I do, but I wish 
to prevent its resurrection." So we should be admon- 
ished by the past not to forget the past would we 
escape the evils which have gone before. 

The Hon. Geo. Wm. Curtis, one of our ablest and 
purest public men and president of the Civil Service 
Reform Association, vainly attempted to stay this raid 
of the Committee upon the employees of the govern- 
ment, and for his efforts, was complimented ' by the 
following assault made in the pretentious " REPUBLI- 
CAN Campaign Text Book for 1882," numbering 240 
pages. In glaring capitals we find the following head- 
ings on pages 99, 100, and 101 : 

No. 1. The Civil Service Reform Circular — Mr. Curtis 
declares Republican Congressional Committee's Circular 
requesting Contributions illegal — Significantly Calls at- 
tention to the provisions and penalties of the Law 
of 1876 — Warns Employes to prudently refrain from 
Complying with the Committee's request — The Civil 
Service Reformers attempt to Bulldoze or Intimidate 
Government Employes by Implied Threats of Perse- 
cution. 

Chairman Hubbell's reply — He joins issue with 
Mr. Curtis aud the Civil-Service Reform Circular 
to Government employees as to the character of 
the Committee's Circular — He denies that it violates 
the law of 1876 — He charges that Mr. Curtis misstates 
and perverts the law in an attempt to alarm, that 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 385 

*. 

is, to Intimidate or Bulldoze, Government Employees 
— Proposes to refer the interpretation of the Law to 
U. S. Attorney-General — If the law has been violated, 
then he, Chairman Hubbell, is equally guilty with the 
Contributing - Culprit— He challenges, therefore, as the 
more manly and honorable course, to bring the issue 
to a decision by a prosecution of himself. 

Mr. Curtis rejoins — He practically confesses the 
Bulldozing Purpose of the Civil-Service Reform 
Association Circular, and Lamentably attempts to ex- 
tenuate or defend it — Characteristically utters, upon 
pretended information, a willful libel that Clerks, 
errand boys, and girls are " virtually threatened " by 
the Committee's Circular with loss of place — Prates 
with hypocritical indignation about the abuses flowing 
from his own false statements of the Law and facts 
— Eulogizes the Democratic authors of the Law of 
1876, the authors of the corrupt and tyranical prac- 
tice of arbitrary and compulsory partisan assessments,, 
and charges all their sins against Innocent Republi- 
cans, but fails to accept Chairman Hubbell's challenge 
to bring the matter to a decision before the U. S» 
Attorney-General or the Courts — Proves himself the 
Joseph Surface of Civil-Service Reform. 

Counsel of Civil-Service Reform Association, in a 
Letter to Chairman Hubbell, Support Mr. Curtis- — 
They Refuse upon a Pettifogging Plea to Refer the 
Interpretation of the Law to United States Attorney- 
General — Thus Decline to accept Chairman Hubbell's 
Challenge of Prosecution against Himself, but with a 
Meanness Characteristic of the so-called Reformer make 
an Offer, which no Honorable Man could act upon, 
that Chairman Hubbell Unite with them in the Pros- 
ecution of some Government Employee who had Con- 
tributed to the Republican Campaign Fund. 

The full text of this correspondence is most instruc- 
tive reading, and is only omitted through fear of making 
this article too voluminious. 



386 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



The Boodle Theory 
Is well illustrated by the following able and instructive 
article on political assessments, taken from the North 
American Review for September, 1882. 

"The enforcement of this nefarious theory by the 
* Robber Barons' of politics was never so universal, so 
shameless, so barbarous, or so indiscreet as at this 
moment. The Federal pay-rolls call for more than fifty 
million dollars a year. On that sum the avowal is a 
levy of only two per cent., but the actual demand 
upon employees and small officials is far greater. If 
the committee expect to extort only a fourth of the 
one million dollars and more they demand, it but shows 
the effrontery of their pretense of a willingness to pay, 
and that they have no compunctions in excusing the 
landlord class and wringing the whole corruption fund 
from the most timid and humble of the tenant class. 
Very likely they expect little more from members of 
Congress and great officials than the pittance they got 
in 1878. It is not sharks and whales they have the 
courage to fish for, but herrings and dace. Boys are 
bullied for a dollar ! 

" Could the curtain of secrecy be lifted, we should 
see a vast drag-net of extortion thrown out by the 
committees from Washington over the whole land from 
Maine to California, with every humble official and 
laborer — from those under the sea at Hell Gate to the 
weather observers on Pike's Peak — entangled in its 
meshes ; and, busy among them, for their prey, a series 
of tax extortioners ranging down from Hubbell the 
great Quaestor to little Hubbells by the hundred, each 
paid a commission on his collections in true Turkish 
fashion (to which the large amounts extorted beyond 
regular plunder rate are added.). These minions, book 
ia hand, are haunting the official corridors and track- 
ing the public laborers. They mouse around the 
bureaus for names and salaries which all high-toned 
officials contemptuously withhold. Neither sex, age, nor 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. , 387 

condition is spared by these spoils system harpies. 
They waylay the clerks going to their meals. They 
hunt the Springfield arsenal and the Mississippi break- 
water laborers to their humble homes. They obtrude 
their impertinent faces upon the teachers of Indians 
and negroes at Hampden School and Carlisle Barracks. 
They dog navy-yard workmen to their narrow lodgings. 
The weary scrub-women are persecuted to their garrets ; 
the poor office-boys are bullied at their evening schools ; 
the money needed for rent is taken from the aged 
father and the only son ; men enfeebled on the battle- 
fields are harried in the very shadow of the Capitol ; 
life-boat crews, listening on stormy shores for the cry 
of the shipwrecked, and even chaplains and nurses at 
the bedside of the dying, are not exempted from this 
merciless, mercenary, indecent conscription, which re- 
produces the infamy of oriental tax-farming. 

"We know of the head of a family who hesitates 
between defying Hubbell and taking a meaner tene- 
ment ; of a boy at evening school blackmailed of three 
dollars while wearing a suit given in charity, and of 
a son pillaged of seventeen dollars when furniture of 
the mother he supports was in pawn ; and many have 
consulted us as to the safety of keeping their earnings, 
which they need. In every case there is fear of re- 
moval or other retaliation. Pages could be filled with 
such cases from the reports of citizens. A newspaper 
before us gives that of a laborer, with a family, earn- 
ing seven hundred and fifty dollars a year, pursued by 
a harpy for fifteen dollars ; and also that of a boy of 
thirteen, earning one dollar a day, with another harpy 
after him for three dollars and sixty cents. To women 
and girls no mercy is shown." 

A Democratic Protest. 

In 1876, Senator George H. Pendleton introduced 

in the Senate a bill which eventually became the 

present Civil Service Law, which, after an able and 

protracted debate, was passed with only five dissent- 



388 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ing votes. The Bill having been sent over to the 
House of Representatives, was passed under a suspen- 
sion of the rules — the only opposition to it being 
that it was not sufficiently stringent in its provisions. 
The Section in relation to political assessments is as 
follows : 

Sec. 6. All executive officers or employees of the 
United States, not appointed by the President, with 
the advice and consent of the Senate, are prohibited 
from requesting, giving to, or receiving from any 
officer or employee of the Government any money or 
property or other thing of value for political purposes ; 
and any such officer or employee who shall offend 
against the provisions of this section shall be at once 
discharged from the service of the United States ; 
and he shall also be deemed guilty of a misdeamor, 
and on conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum 
not exceeding $500. (Supplement to the Revised 
Statutes of the United States, sec. 6, page 245.) 

During the consideration of the measure in the 
Senate , numerous amendments, having for their object 
the widening of the scope of its restrictive features, 
were offered by Democratic Senators, but they were 
invariably defeated by the Republican majority. 

The Republican Congressional Committee of 1882 
seemed to grow furious over the passage of this law, 
and, notwithstanding it received the unanimous support 
of the Republicans in the Senate and House, denoun- 
ced it as, "The Conspiracy of 1876 of the Confeder- 
ate Brigadiers and Copperhead Democracy to wrest 
the Control of the National Government from the hands 
of the Republican Majority," and in regard to this 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 389 

law prefixed the following heading to a long arraign- 
ment of the Democratic party : 

The Law Respecting Political Assessments part of 
the fradulent machinery of the Democratic Conspiracy 
of 1876 — It prohibits under prescribed penalties cer- 
tain Government employees from giving any money or 
valuable thing to any other Government employee of 
a stated rank for partisan purposes — Passed, not to pun- 
ish Arbitrary political Assessments, for none were ap- 
prehended, but to prohibit Voluntary Contributions to 
and an effective organizations of the Republicans — Ar- 
bitrary aud Compulsory political assessments had their 
origin with the Democracy — Were enforced by the 
Democracy with a corrupt and tyranical hand up to 
the latest hour of its long Misrule — When Law of 
1876 was passed the Democratic National and other 
Committees were assessing Democratic Senators and 
Members, the authors of the Law, for partisan pur- 
poses — At New York, wherever the Democrats had 
control of either State or Municipal Government, they 
were assessing a pro rata of Salaries ten times greater 
than 2 per cent. — The Law simply the fraudulent Agent 
of a corrupt Conspiracy. 

This committee acknowledges its full authorization 

by the Republican majority to act for it, as well as 

its responsibility for the acts of its executive officers, 

as the following quotation demonstrates : 

At the beginning of the present campaign, the Con- 
gressional Republican Committee, the organ of the 
Republican party of the nation, located at Washing- 
ton, D, C, instructed its executive officers, its Chair- 
nan, (Judge Jay A. Hubbell,) and its Secretary, (Col. 
D. B. Henderson,) to address a copy of the usual 
contribution circular to every employee of the Execu- 
tive Government. 

It is true, it seeks to escape the odium attaching 



390 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

to the nefarious means employed to extort money 
from the dependent employees of the government for 
political and personal aggrandizement. It cannot, how- 
ever, escape the Pandora's box of evils turned loose 
upon the country, when they denounce, in the same 
breath, the Civil-Service Law as a conspiracy on the 
part of those who sought its enforcement, whatever 
may have been the motive that prompted the action 
of the Democrats. Before the next election the re- 
form element had shown its power as a controlling 
factor in the politics of the country. The Republican 
party had made a narrow escape in the election of 
1880, and, concluding that "discretion is the better 
part of valor," in their campaign Text-Book for 1884, 
touched the subject very gingerly and declared, on 
page 149, 

The cry of Democracy for " honest " Civil-Service 
comes simply from their itch for place and power and 
the opportunity for plunder. It is not an old trick of 
the pilferer to start the people after some honest man 
with the cry of " stop thief," in order to advantage him- 
self ; and to direct public attention from their own terri- 
ble record of plundering and give them one more chance 
at the Treasury, the Democratic leaders would say 
and do anything. Put Democracy in power, and hoiv 
long zvould there be the present surplus in the Treas- 
ury ? How long before there woidd be deficiencies in- 
stead of a surplus ? 

That " itching " palm with which the Democracy is 
accused seems to have controlled this party in their 
recent convention at Chicago. 

Their resolution in regard to this reform is as follows ; 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 39! 

Chicago {Republican) Platform 1888. 

"The men who abandoned the Republican party in 
1884 and continued to adhere to the Democratic party 
have deserted not only the cause of honest govern- 
ment, of sound finance, of freedom or purity of the 
ballot, but especially have deserted the cause of reform 
in the civil service. We will not fail to keep our 
pledges because they have broken theirs or because 
their candidate has broken his. We, therefore, repeat 
our declaration of 1884, to-wit : 'The reform of the 
civil service auspiciously begun under the Rebublican 
administration should be completed by the further ex- 
tension of the reform system already established by 
law to all the grades of the service to which it is 
applicable. The spirit and purpose of the reform should 
be observed in all executive appointments, and all laws 
at variance with the object of existing reform legisla- 
tion should be repealed, to the end that the dangers 
to free institutions which lurk in the power of official 
patronage may be wisely and effectively avoided.'" 

This resolution of the platform adopted at the Re- 
publican National Convention, at Chicago, in June, 
1888, consists of two distinct parts, to-wit: a sneer 
and a promise. The sneer consists in charging their 
own fall upon the Independent voter, and the promise 
is the same held out in 1884, when the Independent 
voter, having in vain sought to carry out this reform 
through their agency, wisely abandoned the party of 
broken promises, and false pretenses, and sought relief 
through Democratic agency. If we are guided by the 
light of experience, surely the Republican party is no 
more to be relied upon now than it was in 1884, U P 
to which time it had proved itself a party of plunder 
instead of reform. 



392 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Boodle, 1888. 
Before leaving this subject, permit me to call atten- 
tion to a recent instance of the old leaven again 
rising up in the midst of this "grand old party," 
whose mission has long since been fulfilled, and which 
now endeavors to secure ascendency through measures 
no longer at issue. The Republican League is probably 
the strongest auxiliary of their party; its disposition 
and expressions are a fit exemplar of the dominant 
spirit of the party. No longer having control of 
official patronage, through which to coerce reluctant 
stipendiaries, it manifests its robber spirit in its en- 
deavors to coerce its political associates. Not relying 
on the strength of its principles, it appeals to the 
persuasive power of the "Almighty dollar." The follow- 
ing dainty and instructive document appeared in the 
St. Louis Republican of recent date, and I append the 
editorial comment as appropriate to the theme under 
discussion. 

[Confidential — dictated.] 

Headquarters of the Republican League 

of the United States. 
New York, May, 24, 1888. 
MY Dear Sir : The Republican League of the Uni- 
ted States desire to bring you face to face with the 
startling fact that the coming Presidential election is 
not to be fought on the old party lines which have 
heretofore divided Democrats and Republicans, but upon 
the direct issue of free trade versus protection. 

It may not be of your personal knowledge, but it 
is a fact nevertheless that the manufacturers of the 
United States who are most benefited by our tariff 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 393 

laws have been the least willing to contribute to the 
success of the party which gave them protection and 
which is about to engage in a life and death struggle 
with free trade. 

A Republican United States Senator from a State 
which never had a Democratic representative in either 
House of Congress or a Democratic State officer, in 
speaking of the well-known disposition of the manu- 
facturing interest to lock up its money, fold its 
hands, and look on while somebody else rights for its 
success, says : 

"The campaign which we are about to enter will 
concern more than anybody else the manufacturers of 
this country. They have heretofore been laggard in 
their contributions to the Republican cause. Indeed, 
if I could punish them without punishing the cause 
of protection itself I would consign them to the hot- 
est place I could think of, on account of their era- 
venal parsimony. If this class of people do not care 
to contribute to the success of the Republican party 
they are welcome to try their chances under a Dem- 
ocratic administration. I can stand it as long as they 
can. I was solicited to contribute to a protective 
tariff league and I replied that, if the manufacturers 
of the United States in their associated capacity were 
an eleemosynary institution, I would vote to give them 
a pension, but that I did not propose myself to con- 
tribute money to advance the interests of men who 
were getting practically the sole benefit, or at least 
the most directly important benefits, of the tariff laws. 
I am in favor of protection ; not precisely the kind 
we are having, but I might be willing to keep that 
rather than not to have any, but I am sure I can 
get along without any of it fully as well as the man- 
ufacturers can, and if they think the Republican party 
is going to maintain a high protective corps for their 
benefit, and the men who do the work in that party 
are going to keep up the expenses of a campaign 
out of their own pockets, leaving them to reap the 



394 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

fruits of the tariff policy without any deduction for 
political expenses, they are greatly mistaken. I under- 
stand that, in a general way, the manufacturers of 
New England have been more liberal in their contri- 
butions than those of Pennsylvania. 

"In fact, I have it from the best possible source 
that the manufacturers of Pennsylvania, who are more 
highly protected than anybody else, and who make 
large fortunes every year when times are prosperous, 
practically give nothing towards the maintenance of 
the ascendency of the Republican party. Of course I 
shall not violate what I consider to be a proper prin- 
ciple of action; but, .if I had my way about it, I 
would put the manufacturers of Pennsylvania under the 
fire and fry all the fat out of them. If the Mills tariff 
bill comes to the Senate there will be some votes cast 
there which will open the eyes of some of these 
people who have, while gathering their millions, treated 
the Republican party as their humble servant." 

These are strong words, and bitter, but they are 
true ; and it now remains with you and your associates 
to determine whether they are reiterated after the 
campaign is over and protection has, through your 
apathy, been struck its death-blow. If you give us the 
means to win the victory we will do it. Are you 
willing ? 

Yours truly, 

James P. Foster, President. 

This circular, sent everywhere to manufacturers " in 
confidence," was made public by one of them by way 
of protest against the blackmailing spirit of the Re- 
publican party. While many manufacturers will be 
manly enough to refuse to submit to blackmail, others 
will be held under the fire until the fat fries out in 
sufficient quantities to grease the Republican machine, 
■x- # *■ * * * ■* 

In this desperate strait, the party hopes to win by 
buying votes with money contributed by the rings, 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 395 

pools, and trusts represented by the Thurstons, Depews, 
and Haymonds, who dictated the nominations at Chicago. 
" Boodle " can do much. There are votes for sale 
and boodle can buy them, but there are not enough 
boodle-givers or boodle-takers in the United States to 
elect a President/' 

This circular, it will be seen, was issued the current 
year, yes, after the Republican party had been beaten 
at the polls, through its venal and corrupt use of the 
public patronage, and while a Democratic President 
was using his best energies to secure the purity of 
the ballot box. 

Theoretical Reformers. 

I do not deny but that there were theoretical re- 
formers among these members of the Republican Con- 
gressional Executive Committee, some of whom occa- 
sionally suffered their honest indignation to find 
expression at the oppression of subordinate government 
employees, and the debauchery of suffrage through 
instrumentalities employed by prominent officials of 
their party. What I do isssert is that, in the cam- 
paign literature of 1882, which was to be used to 
control the Congressional elections, there was not one 
of its members who openly protested against the 
action of his colleagues in their assaults upon this 
reform. St. Paul is not charged with having thrown a 
stone at Stephen, but it is recorded to his discredit 
that he was present and consenting unto his death. 
This Committee was unwilling that General Garfield 
even should be allowed to escape as a Civil Service 



396 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Reformer. Possibly, perhaps, he was one of that number 
who, while a theoretical reformer, was not unwilling 
to secure money from even the most questionable 
sources for campaign purposes. At least the Com- 
mittee appears to be willing to subject him to this 
imputation by publishing his letter requesting aid from 
Brady, the celebrated Star Route manipulator. Doubt- 
less "Hubbellism," a word coined by reason of the 
nefarious practices of this Committee, had dominated 
the whole body. I here insert from the Republican 
Hand-book of 1880 the following choice clipping: 

General Garfield favored Contributions for Partisan Pur- 
poses — His Letter to Chairman Hubbell during last 
Presidential Election asking hozv are the Departments 
generally doing. 

General James A. Garfield is often quoted by the so- 
called Civil-Service Reformers as opposed to or re- 
probating political contributions for partisan purposes. 
The quotation is a characteristic fraud of the bogus re- 
former. To arbitrary or compulsory assessments General 
Garfield was no doubt opposed, as are Jay A. Hub- 
bell and D. B. Henderson — as indeed are all Repub- 
licans. But the General was too sensible a man, too 
experienced, practical, and just, to oppose or reprobate 
voluntary contributions, or requests from responsible 
organs of the party for contributions, in support of the 
cause he himself so ably sustained. Were there any 
doubt in the matter the following letter from General 
Garfield during the late Presidential election, when he 
was himself a candidate, would authoritatively settle it : 

Mentor, Ohio, August 23, 1880. 
My Dear Hubbell: 

Yours of the 19th instant is received. Please say to 
Brady I hope he will give us all the assistance possi- 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. , 397 

ble. I think he can help effectively. Please tell me 
how the departments are generally doing. . 
As ever yours, 

J. A. Garfield. 
Hon. Jay A. Hubbell, Chairman Republican Con- 
gressional Committee, Washington, D. C. 

While I might make many other interesting quota- 
tions illustrative of the political methods of this party 
of " moral ideas," when rejoicing in their supposed 
plenitude of power, it might be ungenerous to the 
fallen, and I, therefore, turn to a brighter and more 
gratifying page in the history of our country. In the 
campaign of 1884, Civil Service Reform had become 
a prominent issue. Mr. Cleveland in his letter of ac- 
ceptance elaborated and emphasized his cordial and 
sincere approval of this measure. By the aid of the 
independent vote he had been triumphantly elected 
as Govenor of his State. His high integrity, fearless 
vindication of the right, and great acceptability as 
Governor of the Empire State, justified the anticipa- 
tions of his friends of his election to the Presidency, 
in the event of his nomination. Mr. Blaine, his oppo- 
nent, gave this reform a general and qualified endorse- 
ment, and it being feared that he was more of a 
politician than a statesman, THE INDEPENDENT VOTE 
was given to Mr. Cleveland and it secured his elec- 
tion. Prior to this time, the Republican party, in 
every national convention and in canvasses before the 
people, had posed as the professed friend and earnest 
advocate of Civil Service Reform. All of its Presi- 



398 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

dents, from Gen. Grant down, had specially recom- 
mended appropriations for the support of a Civil Ser- 
vice Commission. Still, the party neglected and turned 
a deaf ear to these appeals, and never, until defeated 
in the Presidential election of 1884, did it manifest 
any disposition to take the subject up and deal prac- 
tically with it. When it was known that the Demo- 
crats were about to assume the disposition of the na- 
tional civil appointments, then their zeal was quickened, 
their patriotism aroused, an appropriation was made, 
and a Commission appointed in March, 1883. All this 
but tended to embarrass the incoming administration. 
It not unnaturally reminded the Democrats of the ap- 
pointments made by Mr. Adams of the " mid-night 
judges," when Mr. Jefferson was about to succeed him 
in the Presidential office. 

Republican Methods. 
Many Republicans whose terms would have expired 
soon after the inauguration of Mr. Cleveland hastened 
to tender their resignation to secure appointments or 
the appointment of friends in their stead. Such polit- 
ical chicanery in dealing with great national matters, 
in which the people alone are primarily interested 
naturally aroused deep indignation and provoked bitter 
comment on the part of those who had been excluded 
from office for over a quarter of a century : thus to 
be cheated of the fruits of victory in the very hour 
of triumph. The Slogan of Democracy for many years 
had been "Turn the rascals out," and now this im- 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 399 

portant reform, which had been championed through 
Congress by one of their distinguished leaders, was to 
be perverted by the defeated party in order to keep 
the " rascals " in. Upon entering upon his duties Mr. 
Cleveland was thus additionally embarassed in the en- 
forcement of an unpopular law by reason of the stab 
it had received in the House by its professed friends. 

Pledges Redeemed. 
From the course of the President, we are justified 
in declaring that he entered upon his duties with a 
full knowledge of their embarassments and responsi- 
bilities, resolved to honestly and conscientiously carry 
out, in letter and in spirit, every principle announced 
in his letter of acceptance, and in the platform of 
his party. His correspondence with Mr. Curtis, between 
his election and inauguration, indicated no abatement 
of his interest in this reform, but, on the contrary, 
manifested a confidence in his ability to accomplish 
results which the future disclosed were far more 
difficult than he, at the time, probably anticipated. 
From that time onward, in the face of calumny from 
the opposing party, unjust complaints from the Inde- 
pendents, and hostility in the ranks of his own party, 
he- has steadily and fearlessly endeavored to advance 
this reform. No one brought in close personal contact 
with him could fail to discover this unselfish desire to 
fulfil his early promises. On the contrary, he has 
sought every opportunity to aid and sustain the Com- 
mission in the discharge of their arduous duties, has 



400 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

diligently studied, dnd uniformly recommended, such 
modifications of the rules as might relieve their in- 
congruites, remove their inequalities and extend their 
influence. 

A Dependent Laiv. 
There is, probably, no other law upon the Statute 
book so dependent upon the President for its efficiency 
as this Civil Service Act itself. With him rests such 
full discretion that by neglect he may distroy its use- 
fullness, or by its honest and diligent enforcement, render 
its effect most wholesome and beneficial. When intro- 
duced in the Senate, and when under discussion, many 
of its defects and short-comings were pointed out. 
Some were remedied, others it was impossible to correct 
and yet carry the law through. Some of the most 
sincere and earnest friends of the law pointed out these 
defects, but as the measure was tentative, it was deemed 
prudent at the time to pass them over. The Bill was 
the result of innumerable consultations, and its friends 
were content to devise a system, without attempting too 
much, that should be fairly satisfactory to the country. 
Their great object was to attempt only that which was 
practical, and which, if successful, would demonstrate 
the advisability of still greater reforms. Hence it was 
that so large a discretion was left in the hands of the 
President, whom the fathers of our Federal system 
had, at the outset, clothed with extraordinary powers. 
Ours is a great nation — the office-holders under the 
Government are, probably, not less than a hundred and 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 4OI 

fifteen thousand. In the nature of things, it was im- 
possible that the President of the United States, or the 
heads of the Departments, in an administration just 
coming into power, or, for the matter of that, one 
which had for a term been in power, should know the 
qualifications and merits, or demerits, of the numerous 
applicants for local offices in the respective States. The 
practice, possibly more honored in its breach than its 
observance, had long obtained, that Senators and 
Representatives should solicit, for their friends and re- 
tainers, offices of an administration which they had 
helped to place in power. With the growth of our 
country and the multiplication of its offices, a reform 
was needed. A system must be adopted or results 
must continue which, under former administrations, 
had brought into shame and dishonor our free institutions. 
On entering upon the discharge of his duties, Mr. 
Cleveland surrounded himself with an able and distin- 
guished Cabinet, three of whom, supported the Pendle- 
ton bill in the Senate, and all gave him their full 
co-operation, thus enabling him to administer the gov- 
ernment for the good of the people, and to inaugurate 
such reforms as have distinguished him as a model 
executive of a free people. This has not been accom- 
plished without the most unremitting labor, unyielding 
integrity, and resolute purpose. After being exiled 
from office for over twenty-five years ; after seeing a 
victory which they felt was fairly won, wrested from 

them through methods unknown to the Constitution, the 
24 



402 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

joy of the Democratic people reached the bounds of en- 
thusiasm. It was, therefore, natural that they should an- 
ticipate that their adversaries would be immediately re- 
moved from all offices, and such demands were made for 
appointment as only a President like Mr. Cleveland could 
withstand. Not even the magnificient soldier, Gen. 
Grant, was able to resist the importunities of friends, 
the appointment of whom brought dishonor upon his 
administration. Had President Cleveland yielded prompt- 
ly, the thoughtful can plainly see the worst predictions 
of his enemies would probably have been realized. 
Those disposed to cavil at the President for the re- 
movals and appointments he has made during his ad- 
ministration are invited to consider a single extract 
from a Democratic journal, which is as foilows : 

Upon theory it has always been easy to show the 
corrupting influence of the spoils system, and yet the 
Republican party, which now protests so loudly against 
it, held the offices against all comers for a quarter 
of a century, and never realized for a moment that 
Democrats had any right to any political appointment. 
They simply trod in the footsteps of most of those 
who had gone before, and their quickened conscience, 
about which we heard so much in other matters, was 
as dead as a door-nail when applied to Federal 
patronage. This was the ancient faith and practice when 
President Cleveland took his seat. He had distinctly 
announced his appreciation of the reform sought in 
the National Civil Service. He found the new and 
untried law upon the statute-books, but he also found 
both his own opinions and the provisions of that 
law at variance with the settled practice of parties, 
the demands of party leaders, and the expectations of 
those who by party service deemed themselves en- 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 403 

titled to the accustomed rewards. Almost unaided, 
and in the face of opposition in his own ranks such 
as few could withstand, this strong man has made his 
single-handed fight for Civil Service reform. The 
wonder is that he has been able to make any pro- 
gress at all, and not that he has disappointed the 
hopes and expectations of those who were impractic- 
able enough to suppose that the methods of a cen- 
tury could be blotted out in a single administration. 
The Democratic platform means what it says, because 
nothing is surer than that President Cleveland will 
carry it out to the letter. — Baltimore Sun (Dem.) 

I now insert an article from an Independent source, 

which is preceded by two strictures from Republican 

papers : 

Bos i 'on Herald (Ind.) 

The Boston Herald is satisfied that " if President 
Cleveland should be re-elected, greater progress will 
be made in the direction of Civil Service reform, in 
the last than in the first four years of his adminis- 
tration." The Herald confesses that he has made 
many bad blunders and broken his pledges. Hence, 
therefore, accordingly, he will make no more blunders 
and break no more promises. This is first-rate Mug- 
wump logic. — Springfield Union. 

The Boston Herald confesses that Mr. Cleveland has 
wandered further and further from his early professions 
as to Civil Service reform, but professes to believe 
that he would do better if re-elected ; it is queer 
logic by which that result is reached. — Lawrence 
American. 

Our esteemed contemporaries appear to find it diffi- 
cult to understand the process of reasoning by which 
we have arrived at the conclusion that, although Pres- 
ident Cleveland has not made good the professions of 
Civil Service reform pronounced by him at the time 
of his accession to office, there is ground for thinking 



404 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

that he will accomplish more in his second than in 
his first term of service. We regret this inaptitude 
on the part of our neighbors, all the more because we 
are aware it is due to prejudice rather than mental 
incapacity. The world has offered abundant illustra- 
tions from which the argument we made might be 
enforced. Time after time, in business, in politics, 
and in social life, men in ignorance of the difficulties 
to be encountered have made, either publicly or to 
themselves, promises which they have not been able 
to keep ; not because of a want of good intentions, 
but because they have altogether underestimated 
the force of the opposition they have to encounter. 
To call such persons hypocrites and false pretenders 
would, in the great majority of cases, do them a 
grievous wrong, for frequently, where no public asser- 
tion of intentions has been made, the individual him- 
self is, perhaps, the only one who is chagrined at his 
failure. But, assuming the possession of courage and 
honest intentions, the man who suffered these hard 
experiences is much more likely to ultimately succeed 
upon the second than upon the first effort. He is 
then aware of the difficulties that are in his way, of 
the limitations under which he must work, and can 
adapt means to ends with a skill which his past over- 
confidence did not permit him to display. The ground 
taken by our esteemed contemporaries would condemn 
to hopeless despair nine-tenths of the ambitious young 
men of every generation, and we are glad that pes- 
simism has not, with us, been developed to this high 
state of perfection. 

Justice to Mr. Cleveland. 
A careful scrutiny of the conduct of the President 
in his efforts to fulfill his promises should lead the 
dispassionate, impartial seekers after truth to wonder — 
not why he should be criticised, but how one man has 
accomplished so much. In, the language of Mr. Jef- 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 405 

ferson " error can be safely tolerated when trnth is 
left free to combat it." The Democratic party makes 
no excuses and renders no apologies in this matter 
for the President, but declares in its platform that 
** Honest reform in its civil service has been inaugu- 
rated and maintained by President Cleveland, and he 
has brought the public service to the highest stand- 
ard of efficiency, not only by rule and precept, but 
by the example of his own untiring and unselfish ad- 
ministration of public affairs." To show what has 
been accomplished since the enactment of this law 
and the appointment of the Commission in 1883 under 
the efficient guidance of Hon. Dorman B. Eaton, and 
subsequently under the Commission reorganized by 
President Cleveland, I cannot do better than incorpo- 
rate the following extract from the report of the Civil 
Service Commission for the current year : 

Needless Employes. 
Before the enactment of the Civil Service Act the 
condition of the executive civil service in the depart^ 
ments at Washington and in the customs and postal 
services was deplorable. In the Department of the 
Treasury 3,400 persons were at one time employed, 
less than 1, 600 of them under authority of law. Of 
these 3,400 employes, 1,700 were put on or off the rolls 
at the pleasure of the Secretary, who paid them 
out of funds that had not by law been appropriated 
for the payment of such employes. At that time, of 
a force of 958 persons employed in the buraau of en- 
graving and printing, 539, with annual salaries amount- 
ing to $390,000, were, upon an investigation of that 
bureau, found to be superflous. For years the force 
in some branches of that bureau had been twice and 



406 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

even three times as great as the work required. In 
one division there was a sort of platform, built under- 
neath the iron roof, about 7 feet above the floor, to ac- 
comodate superflous employes. In another division 20 
messengers, were employed to do the work of one. 
The committee that made this investigation reported 
that " patronage," what is now known as the "spoils 
system," was responsible for this condition, and de- 
clared that this system had cost the people millions 
of dollars in that branch of the service alone. So 
^reat was the importunity for place under the old system 
of appointments that when $1,600 and $1,800 places 
became vacant the salaries thereof would be allowed 
to lapse, to accumulate, so that these accumulations 
might be divided among the applicants for place on 
whose behalf patronage-mongers were incessant in im- 
portunity. In place of one $1,800 clerk, three would 
be employed at $600 each ; would be employed, ac- 
cording to the peculiarily expressive language of the 
patronage-purveyors, "on the lapse." "In one case," 
said a person of reliability and of accurate information, 
testifying before the Senate Committee on Civil Ser- 
vice Reform and Retrenchment, "thirty-five persons were 
put on the ' lapse fund ' of the Treasurer's office for 
eight days at the end of a fiscal year to sop up 
some money which was in danger of being saved and 
returned to the treasury." Unnecessary employes 
abounded in every department, in every customs office, 
and in almost every post-office. Dismissals were made 
for no other purpose than to supply with places the 
proteges of importunate solicitors for spoils. 
In its first report the Commission said : 
" It was the expectation of such spoils which gave 
each condidate for collector the party strength which 
secured his confirmation. Thus, during a period of five 
years in succession, collectors, all belonging to one 
party, for the purpose of patronage, made removals, at 
a single office, of members of their own party more 
frequently than at the rate of one every day. In 1,565 
secular days 1,678 such removals were made." 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. / 407 

A conditfon of affairs as deplorable existed in the 
postal service. 

Factional Leadership. 

"On all sides, in every branch df the civil service, 
subordinate places were used in the interest of the 
leaders of the factions of a party, who, by assess- 
ments, which were disguised in the form of solicita- 
tions for money, suggestions that money ought to be 
contributed, and other methods of this kind, extorted 
from public employes funds which were used for political 
purposes, legitimate and otherwise. Even members of 
Congress of national reputation signed circular letters 
addressed to subordinate civil servants of the govern- 
ment, requesting contributions to be paid to them as 
members of a political committee ; doing this in utter 
disregard of the spirit of a provision of the Revised 
Statutes declaring it to be unlawful, an offence punish- 
able by fine and dismissal from office, for any officer 
in the public service to solicit, or receive, money from 
any other officer in such service ! The public conscience 
had been perverted by the doctrine that to the victors 
belong the spoils ; and the people were not shocked 
when they beheld public offices bestowed, as a reward 
for partisan services, upon persons at once unworthy 
and incompetent." 

Abuses Corrected. 

Under the Civil Service Act many of of these abuses 
have been corrected. This is shown by the fact that 
although there have been, since the enactment of the 
law, a change of political parties in the administra- 
tion of the government, there has not been, either in 
the departments or at the port of New York, as many 
dismissals in any given time as occurred before the 
passage of the act. And there has not been since 
the change of parties any dismissals in any branch 
of the classified service avowedly for partisan reasons. 
In this connection the notable fact may be stated that 
a collector at the port of New York, appointed after 



408 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

March 4th, 1885, was compelled to resign his office 
when it became evident that removals excessive in 
number were being made by him apparently with ref- 
erence to partisan considerations, and the customs 
business of that port was not being conducted on 
business principles. And in this connection, attention 
may also be called to the fact that a postmaster at 
Baltimore, appointed after March 4, 1885, resigned 
his office, and was condemned, because he had vio- 
lated the Civil Service rules by making appointments 
to and removals from the classified service of his 
office for partisan reasons. 

Since the passage of the act no appointments have been, 
or could have been, made "on the lapse." The place- 
purveyor's occupation is gone in so far as it relates to 
those parts of the service that are operated upon by this 
law. He can no longer demand a place for the party 
henchman who has no adequate qualifications for the 
public service, and, as a general rule, no person can now 
be appointed until after his qualifications have been tested, 
not by theoretic, hair-splitting tests unnecessary to the 
ascertainment of his fitness for the employment sought, 
but by examinations practical in their character. The 
demoralizing methods of the patronage system of appoint- 
ments have been replaced, within the classified service, 
by the better methods of the law, under which the 
demands of common justice are complied with, that, in 
so far as practicable, all citizens duly qualified shall be 
allowed equal opportunity, on grounds of personal fitness, 
for securing appointment and employment in the sub- 
ordinate civil service. 

And even outside the classified service the effects of 
the law are apparent. The wisdom of making dismis- 
sals from unclassified subordinate places for partisan 
reasons is now challenged by the better sentiment of 
the country. The political assessor no longer does 
his work in an open manner. He is not now a familiar 
presence in the departments, the custom-houses, and 
the post-offices. He has become a skulker in his work, 



REFORM OF THE CIVIL SERVICE. 409 

and pursues his vocation as if it was dishonorable. 
Senators and Representatives no longer organize them- 
selves into assessing committees, for the purpose of 
making requests for money for political purposes, re- 
quests to which potency was formely given by the 
implied threat that non-compliance would result in 
dismissal, and which were therefore, in effect, impera- 
tive demands for money upon the employes of the 
government, who were thus compelled by fear of loss 
of employment to "stand and deliver." 

This report has properly dwelt, in the main, upon 
the pecuniary losses to the service, under the spoils 
system. Even cabinet officers did not hesitate to use 
government employes to manipulate local — even National 
Conventions. In Congressional nominations and elections 
the appointees of members often left Washington to 
control local elections, to the neglect of their public 
duties and the disparagement of the service. No one 
can fail to see that in thus prostituting the official 
service of the government a serious blow was being 
struck at our free institutions. Hence this revolt from 
Republican methods, which resulted in the nomination 
of Greeley, and the succession of the Independents in 
1884, which secured the election of Mr. Cleveland, 
and will doubtless produce a like result in 1888. 

In conclusion, it should always be remembered that it 
has been the aim and purpose of the present adminis- 
tration to run this government on business principles 
and not merely as a political machine. The appoint- 
ments under the classified service have a uniform 
entrance and are no longer the small change of office- 



41 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

brokering politicians. Ideas and not spoils ; services 
and not favoritism ; merit and not subserviency, are 
the rules which now control this service. 

The reform has come to stay, and while it may be 
for a time neglected, it will, like truth, on its merits, 
rise again. A Democratic President has manifested its 
practical advantages, and an intelligent public sentiment 
will uphold its enforcement. 




WILLIAM S. HOLMAN. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



Hon. William S. Holman 

Chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, National 

House of Representatives. 

^ r PHE title to our national possessions comes, first, 
by discovery by the Cabots ; second, by discoveries 
and colonization under grants and charters from Eng- 
land, Holland, France, Sweden, and Spain, and treaties 
and conventions thereafter ; third, by Revolution in 
1776, and confirmation through and by the definitive 
treaty of peace at Paris, with Great Britain, Septem- 
ber 3, 1783, whereby the Crown of Great Britain 
recognized the Independence of the United States ; 
fourth, by purchase from France of the province of 
Louisana, April 30, 1803 ; fifth, by purchase from Spain 
of the East and West Floridas, February 22, 1819; 
sixth, by annexation of the Republic of Texas, Decem- 
ber 29, 1845 '■> seventh, by treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 
February 2, 1848 ; eighth, by purchase from the Repub- 
lic of Mexico (the Gadsden purchase) of the Mesilla 
Valley, December 30, 1853 ; ninth, by purchase from 
the Empire of Russia of Alaska; March 30, 1867." 

(413) 



4H THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

The Original Area of the United States and their 

Possessions. 

"By the definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain, 
of September 3, 1783, concluding the Revolutionary 
War, our national territory was defined as extending 
westward from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River, 
and from a line through the lakes on the north to 
the thirty-first parallel and the south boundary of 
Georgia on the south, embracing about 531,200,000 
acres." Of this 218,721,280 acres, were included in the 
thirteen States which formed the American Union. 
Cessions by States to the National Government. 

The State of Kentucky was formed out of territory 
belonging to Virginia, south of the Ohio River. Ver- 
mont was organized out of the territory known as 
the New Hampshire grant. Maine was formed out of 
territory which belonged to the State of Massachusetts, 
and Tennessee out of territory held by North Carolina. 
These four States embrace 53,050,880 acres, and are 
not to be regarded as having been a part of the 
public domain. 

The Public Domain. 

The vast region of country extending from the 
thirteen original States, and the States named, organized 
out of territory belonging to particular States, west- 
ward to the Mississippi River, was claimed under various 
grants from the British Crown by the States of Vir- 
ginia, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, South 
Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia, of which claims 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 415 

that of Virginia embraced substantially the entire region 
of country west of Pennsylvania and New York, lying 
north of the Ohio River. 

It became manifest as soon as the Federal Union 
was formed, that it was of the highest importance that 
the unoccupied lands, extending westward to the Mis- 
sissippi, should be held and controlled by the Federal 
Government. The statesmen of that day saw very 
clearly that in disposing of the public lands, and in 
organizing future political societies, if the Union was 
to be maintained and enlarged, the unoccupied and then 
unexplored regions of country claimed by the States 
must be placed under the control of Congress, and, 
under the high sentiments of patriotism which animated 
that period, the various States claiming portions of that 
unoccupied country surrendered the same to the Federal 
Government to be held for the common benefit of the 
Union. This action resulted in the organization of what 
was known as the territory northwest of the Ohio 
River, extending from New York and Pennsylvania to 
the Mississippi River, out of which were formed, in 
progress of time, the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Michigan, and Wisconsin, leaving a small portion 
thereof east of the Mississippi River, which now con- 
stitutes a part of the State of Minnesota, while the 
territory south of the Ohio River was organized in due 
time into the States of Alabama and Mississippi, as far 
south as the thirty-first parallel. 

This patriotic action of the original States placed 



41 6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

forever the public domain as the common possession 
of all the States, under the absolute control of the 
Federal Government. The public domain, therefore, 
embraced in the beginning 259,131,787 acres, and was 
the beginning of the vast territorial possessions which, 
during the last eighty-five years, have been under the 
control of the Federal Union. But it became apparent 
at an early moment that with the western boundary 
of its government resting upon the Mississippi River, 
with a vast and fertile region of country extending 
west from that great river to the Pacific Ocean capable 
of supporting a great nation, the peace and safety of 
the United States would, in progress of time, be in 
constant peril, and it is manifest from the history of 
that period that as soon as our Government was fully 
established, the importance of securing, not only the 
country west of the Mississippi, but that portion of 
country known as East and West Florida, lying east 
of the Mississippi, was foremost in the minds of all 
the statesmen of that day. 

The moment the independence of the United States 
was assured, Mr. Jefferson began to consider the great 
question of territorial expansion which involved the 
destiny of the new republic. 

The Louisiana Purchase. 

The first enlargement of the public domain was made 
by acquisition of the French Province of Louisiana. 
After that province had been held for many years by 
Spain, it had been surrendered by Spain to France ; 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 417 

» 

Spain still retaining the two Floridas. In the very 
beginning, obtacles were thrown in the way by France, 
at New Orleans, of our employment of the Mississippi 
as an outlet to the Gulf. Mr. Jefferson became 
anxious and vigilant. Mr. Monroe had been despatched 
to France to negotiate with that power for commercial 
advantages at New Orleans, and while not authorized 
to negotiate for the purchase of Louisiana, his mission 
was to seize on any favorable opportunity that might 
arise to fortify the position of the United States. When 
Mr. Monroe reached France, Bonapart was engaged in 
vast military preparations and was in pressing need of 
money, and a proposition was made to sell Louisiana 
to the United States. It is well known that the First 
Consul fully appreciated the value of this great pos- 
session of France and was anxious that if France could 
not hold it it should not fall under the control of any 
great European power ; especially of England or Spain. 
He is said to have remarked during the negotiation, 
"that as he was compelled to sell the province of 
Louisiana or hold it at a great sacrifice of men and 
money, and probably be compelled to see it captured 
by the great Naval rival of France, he preferred to 
transfer it to the United States," adding, " that what- 
ever nation held the Valley of the Mississippi and the 
Gulf of Mexico, would eventually be the most powerful 
on earth ; that consequently, he was determined that 
it should not be held by a European enemy of France." 
After extended negotiations, a treaty was reached, on 



41 8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the 30th of April, 1803, by which the province of 

Louisiana, extending from the Gulf of Mexico to the 

Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean, was ceded to 

the United States, the price paid being $15,000,000, 

with an agreement upon the part of the United States 

to assume and pay the claims of certain American 

citizens against France. The United States was not 

in a condition to pay the money and bonds were 

issued for the amount. 

The following is an accurate statement of the entire 

sums paid by the United States in the purchase of 

Louisiana : 

Principal Sum $ 1 5,000,000 

Interest to Redemption 8,529,353 

$23,529,353 
Claims of Citizens of United States against 

France paid by the United States $ 3,738,268.98 

In all $27,267,621.98 

This is the greatest purchase of lands ever made 
by any nation, not only on account of the vast extent 
and fertility of its territory, but on account of its 
important relations to the Mississippi River and its 
great tributaries and the Gulf of Mexico and the com- 
merce of the world. The acquisition of this territory 
gave to the United States the control of the North 
American Continent, and opened up to their commerce 
the markets of all nations. The area of this Louisiana 
purchase is 756,961,280 acres. It is five times greater 
than the area of France. 

Out of this Louisiana purchase, we have formed the 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 419 

States of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri ; all of 
Kansas but the southwest corner ; all of Minnesota 
west of the Mississippi River ; all of Nebraska ; all 

of Colorado east of the Rocky Mountains and north 

• 
of the Arkansas River ; all of Oregon and the Terri- 
tories of Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington and 
Wyoming, except the zone and the middle, south and 
southwest part ; also the Indian Territory. It must be 
added, however, that the discovery of the mouth of 
the Columbia River by Captain Gray, of the Ship 
Columbia, an American citizen, in 1 791, must be con- 
sidered in connection with the western boundary of 
the Louisiana purchase — for although the claims of 
France extended to the Pacific Ocean, the discovery 
of the mouth of the Columbia River by an American 
citizen, who named the great Western River after his, 
vessel, was important in fixing the northwest boundary 
between the United States and the possessions of Great: 
Britain. 

It will be observed that before this purchase was 
actually made, Mr. Jefferson, in anticipation of the 
ultimate acquisition of Louisiana, recommended to 
Congress an appropriation for the exploration of this 
region of country which resulted in the famous ex- 
ploration made by Lewis and Clark. But this enter- 
prise, although the preparations had been made before,, 
did not really begin until after the purchase was 
completed. The course of Mr. Jefferson in recom- 
mending and securing this purchase was criticized by 
25 



4-0 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the Federalists at the time, and has been since, on 
the gronnd of the' absence of Constitutional power. 
But whatever may have been the views of Mr. Jef- 
ferson as a strict constructionist of the power as 
conferred on Congress by the Constitution, it is mani- 
fest that he regarded this measure of such vital 
moment, and so essential to the ultimate prosperity, 
peace and safety of the United States, as to justify 
him in consummating the act of purchase without too 
severe an examination of the question of Constitutional 
power. Mr. Jefferson in a great emergency recognized 
the soundness of the maxim, " The safety of the 
people is the supreme law." So in the very infancy 
of our Government, under a broad and comprehensive 
statesmanship, this magnificent empire, which in the 
progress of events was destined to make the United 
States the foremost of the nations, was secured by 
peaceful negotiation and honest purchase; the. first 
instance in the history of the world of the acquisition 
of great territorial possessions by a nation, by the 
peaceful methods of. statesmanship. It will be remem- 
bered, however, that the purchase of Louisiana was 
subject to certain grants which had been made both 
by France and Spain — land monopolies after the 
European order — but the extent of those grants was 
trifling in comparison to the magnitude of the 
country. 

The next purchase made by the United States was 
that from Spain, on the 22nd of February, 18 19, of 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 42 I 

East and West Florida, under Mr. Monroe's adminis- 
tration, at a cost of $5,000,000, in bonds similar to 
those issued in the Louisiana purchase. The interest 
on these bonds when redeemed was $1,489,768, making 
the final cost of the purchase of the two Floridas 
$6,489,/68. This purchase added to the public do- 
main 37,931,520 acres, subject, as in the case of 
Louisiana, to certain private grants, which had been 
made by the Spanish Government. There was never 
any anxiety by our Fathers in regard to the Floridas. 
They were not of sufficient extent to excite apprehen- 
sion, and it was reasonably certain, from their isolated 
position with relation to any other possession of Spain, 
that sooner or later they would become, by Revolu- 
tion or purchase, a part of the United States. 

The third acquisition of territory by the .United 
States was that made during the administration of 
President Polk, from Mexico, by treaty concluded on 
the 22d day of February, 1848, known as the treaty 
of Guadalupe Hidalgo. This purchase embraces 334,- 
443,520 acres. In that treaty the United States was 
represented by Nicolas P. Trist, and the amount of 
money paid for this territory was $15,000,000, This 
purchase was only second in important to the purchase 
of Louisiana. It embraces the entire States of Cali- 
fornia and Nevada and all of Colorado west of the 
Rocky Mountains; all of the Territory of Arizona, 
except the part added by the " Gadsden purchase;" 
all of the Territory of Utah, and all of Wyoming. 



422 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

This purchase gave us a grand frontage on the Pacific 
Ocean. It is true that this purchase was an incident 
to war, but it was made after free negotiation, and an 
honest price was paid, in view of the then condition 
of the possession purchased, for the imperial value of 
that region of country was unknown until it was de- 
veloped by the enterprise of the people of the United 
States. 

In its adaption to the settlement, and efforts of the one 
dividual citizen, notwithstanding its vast mineral wealth 
and resources, this region of country is of less value 
than the Territory previously held by the United 
States, but it is a region of country of unexampled 
fertility ; great at the present and of boundless 
probabilities in its ultimate development. But its ag- 
riculture, in a large degree requiring the aid of irri- 
gation, renders it less available for individual enter- 
prise than the great body of our prior possessions. 
From a National and Commercial standpoint it is 
impossible to estimate over the value of this 
acquisition. 

The fourth territorial acquisition was a purchase 

made from Texas. This purchase was made during 

the administration of President Fillmore, on the 9th 

of September, 1850. It embraces 61,892,480 acres. 

This purchase cost the United States, including $3, 

500,000 of interest accrued on bonds issued, $16,000,- 

000. It embraces the south-west corner of Kansas ; 

1 
the south-eastern corner of Colorado ; the eastern 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 423 

portion of the Territory of New Mexico, and the 
"Public Land Strip" west of the Indian Territory. 
This purchase was the necessary result of the Demo- 
cratic policy which admitted Texas into the Union. 

With a view to a more satisfactory boundary be- 
tween the United States and Mexico, the United 
States, under the administration of President Pierce, 
purchased from Mexico an additional body of land 
on the 30th of December 1853. This treaty was 
negotiated by James Gadsden, on the part of the 
United States, and is so called the " Gadsden pur- 
chase." It contains 29,142,400 acres, known as the 
Mesilla Valley, and now constitutes a part of the 
Territories of New Mexico and Arizona. The United 
States paid Mexico for this land $10,000,000, so that 
the entire purchase of lands made by the United 
States from Mexico, by both treaties, was at a cost 
of $25,000,000. During the administration of President 
Johnson, the United States purchased from Russia, 
Alaska, for the sum of $7,200,000 containing, includ- 
ing its islands, 369,529,600 acres. This body of land 
had been repeatedly offered by Russia to the United 
States. A suggestion of its sale to the United States 
was made by Russia during the Crimean War, but 
was declined by President Pierce. It was again offered 
to the United States during the administration of Mr. 
Buchanan, and the price of $5,000,000 was suggested, 
but was not accepted by Russia. The purchase was 
not finally consummated until the 30th of March, 1867. 



424 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

It is the only outlying possession held by the United 
States. The British possessions separate it from the 
other part of the United States. It is principally 
valuable, up to the present time, for the fur seal 
fisheries of its islands and other fisheries upon its 
coast, and is said to be a region of country abounding 
in valuable timber. 

The purchase, however, was made more with a view 
to the ultimate territorial control of the North American 
Continent by the United States than to secure homes 
for the American people. The land laws have not yet 
been extended over this region of country, and perhaps 
it ought not to be included as strictly a portion of 
the public domain. It must be admitted that certain 
political considerations, important at the time, influenced 
the United States more in making this purchase than 
any value attached- to the territory purchased. 

But including Alaska, the public domain of the 

United States and sources of territorial acquisition are 

fairly presented by the* following table : 

Concessions by the Original States of lands ACRES. 

east of the Mississippi River 259,171,787 

Louisiana purchase, April 30, 1803 756,961,280 

East and West Florida, February, 22, 1819.. 37,931,520 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848 .334,443,520 

State of Texas, November 25, 1850 61,892,480 

Gadsden Purchase, December 30, 1853 29,142,400 

Alaska Purchase, March 30, 1867 369,529,600 

1,816,129,464 
At a total cost of $88,157,389.98. 

But this sum of $88,157,389.98 includes the sum of 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 425 

$6,200,000 paid by the United States, in 1802, to 
Georgia for a cession of land made by that State to 
the United States. 

It is an interesting" fact, in observing the drift of 
opinion of the great political parties of the country, 
and the foresight of statesmen, to notice that the 
grand proportions which the public domain has finally 
assumed, and which secured to the people of the 
United States the fairest portion of the globe with 
command of both of the great oceans, has been brought 
about almost entirely under the' auspices of one of the 
great political parties into which the American people 
have been divided. The policy of the Democratic 
party was steadfast from the beginning in the de- 
termination to secure the territorial possessions which, 
in progress of time would make the United States the 
greatest of the nations, and render the formation of a 
Government on the North American Continent great 
enough to be its rival impossible. And it was fortunate 
for the conntry that the Democratic party, during succes- 
sive generations, and until the year 1861, in the main 
organized the institutions, and directed the measures 
which resulted in the division of vast portions of this 
domain into independent freeholds, and secured the 
organization of civil government. 

The following table shows the relations of the Great 
Parties into which the country has been divided to the 
acquisition of the public domain after the original conces- 
sions of the States under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson. 



426 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

By the Democratic Party. 

ACRES. 

Louisiana 556,961,280 

Florida 37.93 1.520 

Purchase from Mexico by two treaties 363,635,920 

In all 1,1 58,528,720 

By the Whig Party. 
From Texas 61,892,480 

By the Republican Party. 
Alaska 369,529,600 

1,589,900,800 
Under the policy of the Democratic party fourteen 
States have been added to the Union in the territory 
it acquired and eight territories organized, leaving still 
only the Indian Territory of 41,000,000 acres, the 
" Public Land Strip " west of the Indian Territory 
and Alaska, without organized civil government. 

The boundaries of all the great States of the Union 
now, or which will be hereafter, formed, are 
substantially established, except the Indian Terri- 
tory and Public Land Strip west of it. 

It is not only fortunate for the people of the United 
States that Democratic policies have in a large degree 
controlled the public domain, but it is a matter for 
very high congratulation to all men that the greater 
part of the public domain was without inhabitants 
except Indian tribes when the Revolutionary war 
terminated and republican government was established, 
so that Democratic ideas could control the methods of 
its settlement in freehold estates. Had this magnificent 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 42/ 

region of country, to any large extent, been settled 
under the auspices of the policy of Europe of one 
hundred years ago, instead of the small and prosperous 
freehold estates in which the country has been divided 
among its people, it would undoubtedly have been 
granted to favorites of power in great estates accord- 
ing to the then policy of every European nation. The 
policy of landed estates; landlords and tenants; palaces 
and huts would have prevailed in America as in 
Europe. A nation of frce-Jiolders was the outgrowth 
of the ideas which organized the Democratic party, and 
gave form to our public land system and for the 
first three quarters of a century controlled the public 
domain. 

Three steps of progress have been made in the 
regulation of our land system. At first the United 
States were compelled to look at the public lands as 
the main resource for the payment of the debts of 
the Revolutionary War. The public domain was the 
main dependence for the payment of those debts. 
Our fathers abhorred heavy taxation in any form. 
With these facts borne in mind, it is especially interest- 
ing to observe that there was no yielding to the 
European policy of great landed estates. Two large 
sales only were made, both within the limits of the 
present State of Ohio. One, to John Cleves Symmes, 
was located between the Great and the Little Miami 
Rivers and embraces the present city of Cincinnati, 
and contained 248,540 acres, and one to the Ohio 



428 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Company, containing 822,900 acres. The patent to 
the first named tract of land was granted to John 
Cleves Symmes, signed by President Washington and 
countersigned by Edmund Randolph, Secretary of State, 
on the 30th of September, 1794. The price paid for 
the tract granted to the Ohio Company was two-thirds 
of a dollar an acre. The price paid for the Symmes 
tract was $165,963,42. The purchase of the Ohio 
Company embraces the present city of Marietta, in 
the State of Ohio. The sale to the Ohio Company 
was confirmed by -Congress on the 27th day of 
July, 1787. 

The most extraordinary departure of the founders 
of this Government from the European policy of great 
landed estates is seen in the fact that with apparently 
boundless possessions in lands stretching westward to 
the Mississippi River — a very remote boundary in 
those day — only the two large tracts of land above- 
named were sold in a body by the United States. 
Surely our fathers appreciated the value of our public 
domain. 

A system was adopted as far back as the year 
1785, of surveying the public lands by rectangular 
lines, into townships, 6 miles square, containing 36 
sections of 640 acres each. 

The first principal meridian in the public domain 
was drawn north from the intersection of the Great 
Miami with the Ohio River, which line now consti- 
tutes the dividing line between the States of Ohio 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 429 

and InSiana, and was the first principal meridian 
established under the lanti system of the United 
States. This first principal meridian controlled the 
surveys in the State of Ohio and a portion of Indi- 
ana. During the ninety-five years since the organization 
of the system, six numerical principal meridians have 
been established and eighteen independent principal 
meridians. These with their base lines constitute the 
great geodetic points in our land system of surveys 
extending westward from the Original States to the 
Pacific Ocean. From May 20th, 1785, down to 1812, 
the land system was under the control of a Board 
of Treasury (three Commissioners) in the Treasury 
Department. On the 25th of April, 18 12, the office 
of Commissioner of the* General Land Office was 
established, at the head of a Bureau in the Treasury 
Department. 

On the 3rd of March, 1849, the Interior Depart- 
ment was created and the General Land Office became 
at once one of the Bureaus of that Department, and 
has so remained ever since. Through this great and 
important Bureau, all the land transactions of the 
Government have been conducted from the beginning, 
and its records are now the most important and 
valuable of any Bureau of the Government. 

The Ordinance of 1787 had a very important relation 
to the land system. The far-seeing powers of Mr. 
Jefferson are here apparent. It completely overturned 
the system of tenures under which lands had been 



430 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

held under the Crown Grants and the feudal system 
of Europe. It produced an extraordinary revolution in 
titles to lands. It almost entirely obliterated the 
whole system of tenures brought by our fathers from 
England to this Continent. The rights of primogeni- 
ture, and other muniments of land tenures of the 
feudal age, except the tenure by courtesy and dower, 
were swept away and the purchase of the. public lands 
was at once invested with a title in fee simple ; the 
highest and most absolute muniment of title by which 
lands can be held, and every patent which has been 
issued since the land system was organized, has been 
signed by the President of the United States, or by 
some person authorized to affix his signature to the 
evidence of title. 

Grants of Land made by Congress. 
The fact has been mentioned that but two great 
tracts of public lands were sold during the early 
period of our Government, or indeed from thence to 
the present time. The tract of land containing 2,187 
acres in Erie County, Pa., sold to that State by 
Congress can scarcely be regarded as ever having 
been a part of the public domain. Nor was Congress 
any more lavish in disposing of the public lands by 
grants or donations. Indeed, when the fact is con- 
sidered that occasions have occurred, especially in the 
earlier periods of our history, when plausible reasons 
could be urged why grants of lands should be made 
in behalf of particular persons or for special objects, 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 43 1 

or to encourage settlements, it is a matter of wonder 
that so few considerable grants can be found upon 
our statute books. Donations of lands were made to 
refugees from Nova Scotia who adhered to the 
fortunes of the United States in the Revolution, and 
a few small grants were made for special purposes, 
a grant to the French who settled at Gallipolis, 
Ohio, in 1 787, under the misapprehension as to the 
rights of the Ohio Company. In 1803 Congress 
granted to Major General La Fayette, 11,520 acres — the 
warrants to be located in the present State of Ohio, 
afterwards authorized to be located in Orleans Territory 
(Louisiana). On the 28th of December, 1824, Congress 
also granted to General La Fayette, in addition to 
$200,000 in money, a township of land in the State 
of Florida. A small grant was made to Lewis and 
Clarke, the great explorers, and their subordinates in 1807. 
But while the greater part of the territory of the 
United States has been acquired by peaceful means, 
and war has been less the employment of the American 
people than of any other nation, and their greatness 
has been achieved through the pursuit of peaceful 
industry, yet the Republic was the child of the great 
Revolution, and the public lands seemed to furnish the 
proper means for recognizing the service of the citizens 
and soldiers in the national defence. This idea was 
in harmony with the theory of the Government, for 
what could be a better recognition of the services of 
the soldier in the defence of the Republic than to 



432 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

invest him with a fee-simple of a portion of its lands ? 
This was the policy of the Roman ' republic where 
every citizen was invested with a portion of land, so 
that the policy of granting bounties for military service 
prevailed from the beginning of our Government down 
to and including the Mexican war. In this respect the 
United States has displayed liberality even as to their 
public lands. In some instances extensive reservations 
for the benefit of the soldiers of the Revolutionary war 
were made of lands to be parceled out among the 
soldiers. Among these reservations was that known as 
the " United States Military District " in Ohio, " Clarke's 
Grant " in the State of Indiana, and other similar 
reservations in Illinois and elsewhere. But the general 
policy of the Government has always been to issue 
military land warrants to be located on the public 
domain. A resolution of the Continental Congress on 
the 1 6th of September, 1776, promised to give the 
following bounties in lands to the soldiers in its army : 

For a Colonel, 500 acres; for a Lieutenant-Colonel, 450 
acres ; for a Major, 400 acres ; for a Captain, 300 acres ; 
for a Lieutenant, 200 acres; for an Ensign, 150 acres; 
to each non-commissioned officer and soldier, 100 acres. 

On the 1 2th of August, 1780, the Continental Con- 
gress resolved that the resolution of September 16, 
1776, be extended so as to give a Major-General 
1,100 acres and a Brigadier-General 850 acres. 

This was the origin, in the United States, of bounties 
in lands for military service. 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 433 

The war of 1812, resulted in further legislation in 
relation to bounty land warrants. On the 6th of 
February, 18 12, Congress promised a bounty in lands, 
for five year's services, of 160 acres to each non-com- 
missioned officer or soldier, to go to his heirs and 
representatives if he was killed in action, or died in 
the service. 

The war with Mexico in 1846 resulted in further 
legislation on the subject of bounty land warrants. 
The act of February 11, 1847, provided that non- 
commissioned officers, musicians and privates who served 
in the war with Mexico, in the volunteer army of the 
United States, for twelve months, or who should be 
discharged for wounds or sickness prior to the end of 
that time, or in case of his death while in the service, 
that his heirs should receive a warrant for 160 acres 
of land. Those who served for a term less than twelve 
months should' receive a warrant for 40 acres of land. 

The privileges of bounty lands were extended, by 
the act of September 28, 1850, granting an eighty 
acre warrant for service in the Indian Wars after 1790, 
the war of 181 2, and to commissioned officers in the 
war with Mexico, and the act of March 22, 1852, for 
the first time made land warrants assignable. Further 
grants were made by the act of March 3, 1855. This 
last named act is the most comprehensive measure 
ever enacted by Congress in relation to bounty 
warrants. It granted to all officers and soldiers who 
had served in any war in which our country has been 



434 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

engaged, from the Revolution to the 3rd of March, 
1855, I ^° acres each, or so much, with what had been 
previously allowed, as would make up that quantity. 
It required only a service of fourteen days, or an 
engagement in a single battle, and in case of death 
the warrant to go, to the widow or minor children. 

The theory of European governments in regard to 
the distinction in favor of commissioned officers was 
seen in the first bounty land act, and that of 
August 12, 1788. But it soon disappeared, and in all 
subsequent legislation in regard to bounty warrants, 
officers and soldiers were placed on the same footing. 
But the most striking change in this legislation is 
seen in the liberal tendency of Congress on these 
measures. The first act upon the subject, that of 
September 16, 1776, promised a bounty warrant only 
to officers and soldiers who served to the close of the 
war and to the representatives of those slain by the 
enemy, and the bounty act of 18 12, promising bounty 
lands for a service of five years, while the act of the 
3rd of March, 1855, gave a quarter section of land 
to every soldier who had served for the period of 
fourteen days, or engaged in a single battle, and in 
case of his death to the widow and minor children. 
This act, so extremely liberal in its provisions, termi- 
nated grants for military services in our country as 
will be seen hereafter. 

Some of the earlier legislation provided for " scrip", 
payable in money in lieu of the bounty land warrant, 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 435 



which would reduce the amount of lands actually 

taken under the bounty land system. Under this 

series of legislative measures, from 1776 down to 1855, 

lands were granted and land warrants were issued as 

follows : 

ACRES. 

For the Revolutionary War 2,165,000 

For the War of 1812 4,930,192 

Under the legislation extending from 

1847 to 1855 61,028,430 

In all 68,123,622 

With the bounty land legislation touching the 
Mexican War, as will be seen, the policy of granting 
lands to the soldiers of the Republic ceased. 

Indian Reservations. 
It should, however, be remarked that, before any 
part of the public domain was disposed of it was 
especially provided by Congress, at an early period, 
that no lands should be disposed of until the Indian 
title had been extinguished, and between the 4th of 
July, 1776, and June 30th, 1880, under treaty stipula- 
tion with the Indians, and in consideration of the 
surrender of their lands to the Government, the 
United States paid in annuities, and other charges, 
in support of tribes, $187,328,903, to which should be 
added the sales of public lands held under treaty for 
the benefit of the Indian Tribes and lands held in 
trust for them by the United States. 

The largest of Indian reservations, is that of the 
26 



436 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Indian Territory, which contains 41,400,91 5 acres, with 
a population of about 110,000 — a large portion of 
which is held in fee simple by the five civilized In- 
dian Tribes under patent from the United States, the 
original purpose having been to concentrate the In- 
dians in this Territory, and ultimately form a state 
of the original owners of this great public domain — 
the remnants of the once powerful tribes. It was a 
humane and noble purpose of high honor to the 
statesmen of former days. 

Including the Indian Territory these reservations in 
the aggregate amount to 154,436,362 acres, with an 
estimated Indian population of 255,938. 

This was the estimate in 1883, and is probably 
substantially correct at the present time, as while 
some of the tribes have diminished in numbers, a few 
notably the Navigoes, have increased. 

During the present session of Congress, however, 
various bands of Indians in Montana north of the 
Missouri River have sold to the Government 17,000 
OOO acres of their land. 

Grants in aid of Education. 

The subject of education was of special interest to 
the early statesmen of the Republic as it has been 
through all our history. The early enactments of 
Congress attest the importance attached to the educa- 
tion of the whole people. The granting of lands for 
educational purposes in every township expresses clearly 
the purpose of our Fathers to interest every commun- 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 437 

ity, from the beginning, in the education of its chil- 
dren. Land grants for education are one of the early 
features of our government. 

This policy was inaugurated by the Act of Con- 
gress of May 20, 1785, (providing for the disposal of 
of the public lands). 

This act provided that there shall be reserved the 
lot No. 16, of every township for the maintenance of 
public schools within said township. This law is the 
noblest monument ever erected to statesmenship in the 
current history of the world. 

Thus, from the beginning, one section of each 
Township of the public domain was dedicated to the 
purpose of education. 

Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Monroe, and all the statesmen of 
that day seem to have cordially concurred in this 
policy^ It was continued without modification in the 
organization of the successive States beginning with 
Ohio, until the formation of the Territory of Oregon 
when, on motion of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, on 
August 14th, 1848, the thirty-sixth section of many 
Townships was also devoted to common-school educa- 
tion, and every State since admitted to the Union 
has received two sections in every township and in 
every Territory organized since August 14, 1848, the 
1 6th and 36th sections have been set apart for edu- 
cational purposes. That policy has been accepted by 
the country without a word of dissent- — with univer- 
sal approval. 



43^ 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



The grand total of grants and reservations made to 
the States and Territories organized on the public do- 
main amounts to 67,893,919, as will appear from the 
following table: 

Grants for Common School Education. 

States and Territories. Total Area. Dates of Grants. 

Section 16. Acres. 

Ohio....: 704,408 March 3, 1803 

Indiana 650,317 April 19, 1816 

Illinois 985,066 .April 18, 1818 

Missouri 1,199.139 March 6, 1820 

Alabama 902,774 March 2, 1819 

Mississippi 837,584 March 3, 1803 

May 19, 1852 

March 3, 1857 

Louisiana 786,044 April 21, 1806 

February 15, 1843 

Michigan 1,067,397 June 23, 1836 

Arkansas 886,460 do 

Florida , 908503 March 3, 1846 

Iowa 905,144 do 

Wisconsin 958,649 August 6, 1846 

Section 16 & 36. 

California 6,719,324 March 3, 1853 

Minnesota 2,969,990 February 26, 1857 

Oregon 3,329 706 February 14, 1856 

Kansas 2,802,306 January, 1861 

Nevada 3,985,428 March 21, 1864 

Nebraska 2,702,044 April 19, 1854 

Colorado S^^-SSS March 3, 1875 

Washington Territory 2,488,675 March 2, 1853 

New Mexico Territory 4.3°9>3 6 S September 9, 1850 

July 22, 1854 

Utah Territory 3.003,613 September 9, 1850 

Dakota Territory 5,366,451 March 2, 1861 

Montana..*, 5,112,035 February 28, 1861 

Arizona . Territory 4,050,347 May 26, 1864 

Idaho Territory 3,068,231 March 3, 1863 

Wyoming ■ Territory 3,480,281 July 25, 1868 

Total;..... ..67,893,919 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 439 

The grants to States were absolute ; those to the 
Territories are suspended until their admission into 
the. Union. 

In addition to this, Congress, under the Act of 
July 2, 1862, granted to all the States of the Union 
for the support of agricultural and mechanical colleges, 
30,000 acres of land for each Senator and Member of 
the House of Representatives in Congress. If there 
was no land in the State, land scrip was to be 
issued. Under . this law the States in the aggregate 
received 9,600,000 acres of the public land, as will 

appear from the following table : 

ACRES. 

Wisconsin ..240,000 

Iowa 240,000 

Oregon 90,000 

Kansas 90,000 ., 

Minnesota 120,000 

Michigan 1 20,000 

California 150,000 

Nevada (also Tinder act of July 4, 1866) 90,000 

Missouri 330,000 

Nebraska, (under act of July 23, 1866) 90,000 

Colorado 90,000 

Total 1,770,000 

States to which scrip was issued and amount. 

ACRES. 

Rhode Island 1 20,000 

Illinois 480,000 

Kentucky 330,000 

Vermont I 50,000 

New York 990,000 

Pennsylvania 780,000 



440 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

New Jersey... 210,000 

New Hampshire 150,000 

Connecticut 1 80,000 

Massachusetts . 360,000 

Maine 210,000 

Maryland 210,000 

Virginia 300,000 

Tennessee 300,000 

Delaware , . 90,000 

Ohio 630,000 

West Virginia 1 50,000 

Indiana 390,000 

North Carolina 270,000 

Louisiana 210,000 

Alabama 240,000 

Arkansas 1 50,000 

South Carolina ,. 180,000 

Texas 1 80,000 

Georgia 270,000 

Mississippi 21 0,000 

Florida 90,000 

Total 7,830,000 

Total in place and scrip 9,600,000 

The grants made to townships have produced won- 
derful results in every State organized out of the 
public domain far beyond the value of the land 
granted. To this policy so earnestly supported by Mr. 
Jefferson and enlarged by Mr. Douglass, we are mainly 
indebted for our magnificent system of Common Schools 
and their immediate control by the people. 

The spirit and tendency of republican government 
is admirably illustrated in these grants in aid of educa- 
tion, the Common Schools — the Universities of the 
people — under the immediate control of the people — 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 44I 

were liberally endowed, while Colleges and Universities 
which, in the nature of things, could only open up op- 
portunities for higher education to a comparatively 
small number of the youth of the Republic, were 
sparingly provided for. It was the system of education 
that reached, in its beneficence, every child of the 
Republic, that interested our fathers, and inspired them 
in setting apart land in every township of the public 
domain for common school education. 

Grants of Land for Wagon Roads, Canals, and Im- 
provement of Rivers. 
During the period commencing on the 12th day of 
December, 181 1, and terminating on the 12th day of 
July, 1862, Congress made grants of lands to certain 
States and Territories for the construction of Wagon 
Roads, Canals and improvement of Rivers, as. follows : 

ACRES. 

For Wagon Roads 2,034,087 

For Canals 4,600,824 

For the Improvements of Rivers J >975»593 

8,610,504 
The grants of public land made by Congress for the 
important objects named, military service, education 
and internal-improvements, while liberal, was strictly 
confined to objects of universal interest. The record 
is one of high honor to the earlier statesmen of the 
Republic, for with a territory almost unlimited in 
extent, which apparently centuries only could people ; 
with countless schemes of enterprise seeking the appro- 



44 2 HE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

priation of the public lands for the benefit of individuals 
and organized bcdies, each promising (as such projects 
always do) grand public benefits no matter how 
mercenary the purpose, yet, for more than three 
quarters of a century, the men who controlled the 
destines of the nation stubbornly held the public lands. 
No tendency was permitted to the European system of 
landlords and tenants. " The public domain, a gift of 
Providence to mankind, shall be the free homes of 
freemen," was their policy even if the purpose was not 
expressed. Under the policy of those statesmen, our 
landless citizens for many generations yet to come 
would have found free homes on the public domain. 
Artificial methods ; the creation of great private estates 
by law out of the common property of the people 
could alone defeat that policy. 

During the period between the 20th day of Septem- 
ber, 1850, and the 3rd day of March 1857, commenc- 
ing with the administration of Presidant Fillmore and 
running through the administrations of Pierce and Polk, 
grants of public lands were made by Congress to 
certain States to aid in the construction of railroads. 
It was a questionable policy. It was only relieved 
from the charge of granting public lands for profit and 
speculation by the fact that, as in former grants to 
States for internal improvements, (wagon roads, canals 
and improvements to rivers,) it placed the lands un- 
der the safe-guard of the States, to which the grants 
were made, and enabled the States to not only con- 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 443 

trol and dispose of the lands for the benefit of the 
States but to control the agencies, or corporations, 
through which the land was applied to the pur- 
pose intended. If a corporation constructed the rail- 
roads and received the land grant, the corporation 
was created by the State and subject to its laws for 
all purposes of benefit to the States or taxation. As, 
for instance, in the case of the State of Illinois to 
which a grant was made on the 20th day of Sep- 
tember, 1850, during the administration of President 
Fillmore, of 2,595,053, — the largest grant of land ever 
made by Congress prior to the 4th day of .March, 
1 86 1, — the State reserved a perpetual bonus of seven 
per* cent, of the gross earnings of the railroad per 
annum ; a measure of great benefit in relieving the 
people from a large burden of taxation. 

The entire grants made during that period, and made 
to States only, are set forth in the following table: 

Grants of Land to States to Aid in the Construction 
of Railroads. 

Under Whig administration: acres. 

Grants to Illinois, Mississippi, Alabama, Missouri, and Arkansas 

to aid in th~ construction of railroads 6,951,683 

Under Democratic administration: 

Grants to Arkansas, Iowa, Florida, Alabama, Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Minnesota 2 35 T 9- /> 37 

Grand total under Whig and Democratic administration .30470,920 

(See General Land Office Report, 1875.) 

No grant of land was ever made by Congress to a 
corooration prior to July I, 1862. 

The Change of Policy Touching the Public Lands. 
There are three distinct periods in the history of 



444 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the public domain. In the beginning, although the 
public domain only extended to the Mississippi river, 
with 3,000,000 people on the sea-board, it seemed 
almost without limit, and while the policy was in- 
augurated, as almost the first fruits of the Revolution 
and the establishment of Republican Government, of 
small freeholds as against the feudal system of great 
landed estates, yet the public lands were the main 
dependence for paying the debts of the Revolutionary 
war. At first the sale of the land was held to be of 
special necessity for means to pay the public debt and 
aid for. the support of the government, and economic 
policies in government do not readily change. Under 
this system lands were sold in very considerable tracts, 
although no great sales occurred except those already 
mentioned, but the policy of sub-dividing the land in 
quarter sections, eighty acre lots and forty acre lots, 
was the result of years of experience, and yet it must 
be stated in general terms that down to the year 
1 84 1, the public lands were considered mainly with 
reference to their cash value. 

For some time after the sale of public lands began, 
lands were sold on credit for one, two and three years, 
at $2 an aere. The idea of making the lands availa- 
ble for money for the treasury pervaded the entire 
land system. 

The importance of the public lands for the exclusive 
purpose of securing homes for the people, was to be 
developed at a later day. When the possibility of 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 445 

the ultimate exhaustion of the public domain came in 
view, statesmen began to appreciate the importance of 
the actual settler. So that the Pre-emption law of 
September 4, 1841, which gave the settler priority of 
right against persons seeking the lands for purposes 
of speculation, was amongst the first steps in our 
legislation, having distinctly in view the importance of 
securing homes to actual settlers on the public domain. 
Acts of Congress tending to this final Pre-emption 
law were enacted on the 22d of June, 1838, and on 
the 1st of June, 1840 

While the former measure was pending in the 
Senate, Mr. Merrick, of Maryland, moved the following 
Amendment. "That the benefits of Pre-emption be 
confined to Citizens of the United States excluding 
unnaturalized foreigners, or those who had declared 
their intentions to become Citizens." This Amend- 
ment was defeated by a vote of 15 to 28; Mr. Clay 
and Mr. Crittenden and others for it; Mr. Benton and 
Mr. Calhoun and others against it. The political 
character of the vote is indicated by the votes of 
the Senators named. 

But the Pre-emption law only gave priority of 
right to purchase over the speculator. It required an 
actual settlement on the land, but only a brief 
occupation, until a patent could be secured. While the 
wealth of the country was not sufficient to justify large 
investments in public lands, and the great body of 
the public domain was unsettled, the Pre-emption law 



446 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

was a prudent measure, but as the public domain 
was year after year steadily reduced, and lands in 
the main could only be secured by actual settlement, 
it will be seen that this once benificent measure be- 
come available to secure large estates of lands to 
capitalists of Europe, as well as of America. 

But the fertile lands of the Valleys of the Ohio 
and Mississippi were fast filling up with settlers. The 
period between the 4th day of September, 1 841, when 
the Pre-emption law was enacted, and 1857, when 
Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, introduced in the 
Senate the Homestead bill, was one of marvelous 
activity in the settlement of the public domain. Lands 
east of the public domain — in Ohio and farther east — 
had incresed to such value as to press emigration 
westward and north-westward into Indiana, Michigan, 
Illinois and Wisconsin and beyond the Mississippi. 
A restless army of American citizens was moving 
westward to secure homes on the public domain. 

This great western movement of our people brought 
a strong measure to bear on Congress for legislation 
that should secure the public lands in limited free- 
holds to actual settlers only. 

In 1857 Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, introduced 
in the Senate a Homestead bill. This measure, with 
slight modefications, became a law on the 20th day 
of May, 1862, by the approval of President Lincoln. 
Its purpose was to secure to every head of a family, 
and every citizen of the United States over twenty- 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 447 

one years of age, and to every person of foreign 
birth who had declared his intention to become a 
citizen, a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres 
of land in the public domain. After the introduction 
of this measure in the Senate by Andrew Johnson, 
it encountered the veto of President Buchanan. Partly, 
at least, on the ground that by a singular oversight 
persons of foreign birth might obtain a homestead 
without being heads of families while native born 
citizens could only obtain homesteads when heads of 
families. That was one of the grounds of the veto, 
but Mr. Buchanan did not favor the measure. 

The Homestead bill finally passed the House by a 
vote of 107 to 16 and the Senate by a vote of 33 
to 7. Of the members of the House of Representative 
now members of the House, all voted for it, Mr. 
Cox, Mr. Kelly and myself. The same, I think, is 
true as to the Senate. The Homestead measure is 
unquestionably the most humane and thorough 
American law that was ever enacted by Congress. It 
contained however one section, now known as Section 
2301 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, 
known as the " Commutation Clause," which enables a 
settler after six months to obtain a patent by the 
payment of one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre. 
This section has opened up facilities by which 
capitalists have been able to enter, through their 
employes, large estates in the public lands. In this 
respect, with this section 2301 in force, the Home- 



448 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

stead law and this Pre-emption law stand on the same 
footing and equally furnish opportunities for fraudalent 
entries of the public lands. 

But the Homestead law did not secure the result 
anticipated ; that is the dedication of the public 
domain for homes and freeholds of the American people. 

When the Homestead bill was pending in the House, 
in view of the traditional policy of our government, 
the war for the Union being then in progress, I sub- 
mitted to the House, on the 12th day of December, 
1 86 1, almost at the beginning of the late war, the 
following amendment to the Homestead bill : 

And be it further enacted, That the provision of an act entitled '• An act in 
addition to certain acts granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers 
who have been engaged in the military service of the United States," ap- 
proved March 3, 1855, shall extend to and be construed to embrace the offi- 
cers, soldiers, and seamen who have been engaged in the military or naval 
service of the United States since the 12th of April, 1861, or who shall be 
engaged in such service during the present war : Provided, however, That 
no officer, soldier, or seaman shall be entitled to the benefit of said act un- 
less he shall have been engaged in the service aforesaid for a period of not 
less than sixty days, or been honorably discharged on account of wounds 
received or sickness incurred while in the line of his duty in such service : 
Provided furiher, That the widows and children of officers, soldiers, and 
seamen who shall die from wounds received or sickness incurred while in 
the service of the United States, as aforesaid, shall be entitled to the 
benefits of said act. And this act, except this section, shall not go into 
operation for the period of one year after the close of the war in which we 
are engaged. 

It will be seen, at once, that the object of this 
provision was to place the soldiers of the Union army 
on the same footing as to bounties in the public 
lands as the soldiers of all former wars. 

This measure was strenously opposed on the ground 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 449 

that the measure would open facilities for monopolizing 
the public lands, and that argument was deemed 
sufficient, and my proposition was defeated. A subse- 
quent effort made to secure bounty lands to the soldiers 
of the Union army, by a bill which passed the House 
on the 1 2th day of December, 1872, and failed in the 
Senate, indicated a determined policy, from the be- 
ginning, that the soldiers of the Union army should 
not receive bounty lands, in conformity with the old 
traditions of the Republic. 

But in view of the argument against bounty land 
grants to Union soldiers which defeated the proposition 
I have named, it is certainly a remarkable fact that 
while the Homestead law passed on the 20th day of 
May, 1862, the policy of land grants to railroad cor- 
porations began on the 1st day of July, 1862, in a 
grant of 28,000,400 acres of land to the corporations 
of the Union Pacific Railroad system, and this policy 
of land grants to corporations, and to States for cor- 
porations, continued until the grants reached the 
enormous proportions of one hundred and eighty-one 
million four hundred and nineteen thousand, five hundred 
and sixty-nine acres of land — a territory more than 
eight times the area of the State of Indiana. 

The following table, furnished by the General Land 
Office, shows in detail these extraordinary grants of 
the public lands, the more extraordinary in view of 
the traditional policy of our Government of dedicating 
our public lands to limited freeholds for our people. 



45o 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



Grants of Land made by Congress after March 4, 1861, 
to States for Corporations and to Corporations. 

Date Estimated 

NAMES OF COMPANIES. State, of granting- area of en- 

act. tire grant* 



Grants to States subsequent to March 4, 1861. 



Leavenworth, Lawrence and Galveston. 

Atch'iscn, Topeka and Santa Fe 

Union Pacific, Southern Branch 

St. Joseph and Denver City... 

Portage, Winnebago & Lake Sup'r, Wis'n Cen'l 

La Cross and Milwaukee 

St. Croix and Lake Superior 

Main Line 

Bayfield Branch 

Lake Superior and Mississippi 

Sioux City and St. Paul 

McGregor Western 

Grand Rapids and Indiana 

Southern Minnesota and Minnesota Valley 

Bay de Noquet and Marquette 

Marquette & Ontonagon [Mar. Haughton&Ont. 

Peninsula [Chicago and Northwestern 

Minnesota and Pacific 

do do .'.. 

Minneapolis & Cedar Valley [Minnesota Cent'l 

Winona and St. Peter's 

Southern Minnesota 

Hastings, Minnesota & Red River of the North 



Kansas 

do 

do 

do 

Wisconsin 



Mar 3, 1863.. 

do 

do 

July 23, 1866, 
May 5. 1864.. 
do 



Minnesota 

Iowa 

do 

Michigan.. 

Minnesota 

Michigan . 

do 



do. 



Minnesota 

do 

do 

do 

do 

do 



do 

do 

May 5, 1864.. 
May 12, 1864. 

do 

June 7. 1864. 
May 12, 1864 
Mar. K, 1865. 

do 

July 5, 1862.. 
Mar. 3, 1865- 

do 

do 

do 

do 

July 4, 1866.. 
do 



Acres. 

800,oro 
3,000 00i 
l,53«i.. 00 
1,70 ) 000 
LfcO ).000 

624,843 

291,799 
144,399 
9 00J 
524 8(0 
1,536.000 
852. W0 
401000 



Total. 



Grants to corporations subsequent to Mar. 4, 1S61 



Union Pacific 

Leavenworth, Pawnee and Western : 

Denver Pacific 

Kansas Pacific 



July 1,1862.. 
July 2, 1864- 

July 1, 1862. 
do 



Central Pacific and Western 

Hannibal & St. Jo. [Union Pacfflc Cent'l Branch 

Sioux City and Pacific 

Burlington and Missouri River 

Northern Pacific 

California and < >regon [Central Pacific 

Oregon Central [Oregon and California 

Atlantic and Pacific 

Southern Pacific .* 

Oregon Central [Oregon & Calif ornia] forfeited 

Southern Pacific, Branch Line 

New Orleans, Baton Rough and Vicksburg 

Texas Pacific 

Stockton and Copperopolis 



July 2, 18d4. 

do 

do 

July 2, 1864.. 

do 

July 23, 1866. 
July 25, 1866 
July 27, 1866. 

do 

May 4, lb r <0.. 
Mar 3,1871- 

do 

do 
Mar. 2, 1867 



221,006 

240.C03 

5S0 000 
499.4 5 
257 31.1 
.564,0 
735.000 
555 0)0 

17,775,624 



12,000 

1 0,400 
6,0JU.lO0 

9,00J,0O0 

781.944 

(0 000 

2.441 ' 00 

47,000 00 ) 

:<.5uc ooo 

3.500 0000 

42.000 

9.5 000 

1,£00 00 

3 5: 000 

3^00 000 

18.000 

3;0 



Total. 



181.419 r 39 



* The figures of this column are approximately correct, being based on the 
estimate of the annual report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office of 
1875. 

In view of the policy of all the political parties 
which in former years had controlled the affairs of 
the Republic — Federal, Whig, Democratic, in holding 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 45 1 

the public lands, this procedure of the Republican 
party, which justly claims the credit of the Homestead 
law, for it was approved by President Lincoln on the 
20th day of May, 1862, is the most remarkable. It 
is impossible to conceive a policy better calculated to 
monopolize our public land, — the most valuable 
possession ever committed by Providence to the care 
and possession of any nation — than that which was 
adopted. 

It was not only the 181,419,568 acres granted to 
corporations which was to be placed in a large degree 
under the cause of monopoly, and forever beyond 
the reach of laboring men, but this system of land 
grants opened up opportunities for capitalists of 
Europe and America, in advance of honest settlement, 
to appropriate the public lands, before the real settlers, 
with limited means, could start westward with his 
wife and children. To illustrate this I submit the 
following table of foreign capitalists alone, who have 
seized upon these public lands in large estates, depriv- 
ing multitudes of laboring men of the opportunity of 
securing homes. See how under this system land 
grants, foreign noblemen and capitalists become the 
owners of land which belongs, by nature and justice, 
to laboring men. 

I am aware that this is a very imperfect list of 

the foreign capitalists and noblemen, who are now 

holding large landed estates in our country as an 

outgrowth of our imperial grants to railroad corpo- 
27 



452 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



rations. It will be seen that every one of these 
landed estates is within the limits of the public 
land of our States and Territories. 



The List is as follows : 

ACRES. 

The Holland Land Company, New Mexico 4,500,000 

Sir Edward Reid and syndicate, in Florida 2,000 000 

Engli&b syndicate, in Mississippi 1,800,000 

Marquis of Tweedale , 1,750,000 

Phillips, Marshal & Co., London 1,300,000 

German syndicate 1, 100,000 

Anglo-American syndicate, Mr. Rogers, president, London 750,000 

Byron H. Evans, of London, in Mississippi 700,000 

Duke of Sutherland 425,000 

British Land Company, in Kansas 320,000 

William Whalley, M. P., Peterboro, England 310,000 

Missouri Land Company, Edinburgh, Scotland 300,000 

Robert Tennant, of London 230,000 

Dundee Land Company, Scotland 247,000 

Lord Dunmore 120,000 

Benjamin Newgas, Liverpool 100,000 

Lord Houghton, in Florida 60,000 

Lord Dunraven, in Colorado 60,000 

English Land Company, in Florida 50,000 

English Land Company, in Arkansas 50,000 

Albert Peel, M. P., Leicestershire, England 10,000 

Sir J. L. Kay, Yorkshire, England 5,000 

Alexander Grant, of London, in Kansas 35, 000 

English syndicate (represented by Clore Bros.,) Wisconsin 110,000 

A Scottish syndicate, in Florida 500,000 

A. Boy sen, Danish consul, in Milwaukee 50,000 

Missouri Land Company, of Edinburgh, Scotland 165,000 

Sir William Heckley, of England, in California 125,000 

17,172,000 

This list has been published before, but I have 
eliminated from it all estates in the United States 
held by foreign capitalists and noblemen except those 
acquired in the public land States and Territories, or 
under our railroad land grant system, in the public 
domain. 

But what a commentary on this system is this list 
of 17,172,000 acres of land, a territory nearly as large 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 453 

as the State of Indiana, given over to the most 
exasperating form of monopoly and forever beyond the 
reach of laboring men ! 

When the old time frugality touching the disposal 
of the public lands is considered, this prodigal 
disposition of them to whoever would come and take 
them, lobbyist, capitalists, noblemen, or corporation, 
is certainly most extraordinary. There is no example 
of such prodigal grants of lands except in the feudal 
age, when a marauding and conquering Chief divid- 
ed conquered provinces into baronial estates, and yet 
these were small in comparison to those given by 
Congress to its favorites. 

This legislation was carried on until imperial 
possessions were granted to the favorites of Congress — 
lands which in the aggregate would form at least 
nine average States of the Union. The power of the 
lobby during that period, during the greater part of 
which all patriots were watching with eager solicitude 
the movements of our armies, was without any 
precedent. The extraordinary hold it had obtained on 
Congress would be well illustrated by a single vote 
which occurred in the midst of this carnival of 
land grants. On the 1 8th of January, 1869, I sub- 
mitted the following resolution to the House of 
Representatives. 

Resolved, That grants of the public lands to corporations ought to be dis- 
continued, and the whole of such lands ought to be held as a sacred trust 
to secure homesteads to actual settlers, and for no other purpose what- 



454 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Mr. H. D. Washburn moved that it be laid on the 
table. The question being put, it was decided in the 
affirmative — ayes no, nays 55. Among those voting 
in the affirmative were William B. Allison, Oakes 
Ames, John Coburn, Shelby M. Cullom, James A. 
Garfield,, W. D. Kelley, Charles O'Neill, Luke P. 
Poland, Green B. Raum, and William Windom. Of 
the gentlemen still in the House, Mr. Kelley and 
Mr. O'NEILL, of Pennsylvania, and Mr. BUTLER, of 
Tennesse, voted to lay on the table ; Mr. RANDALL, 
Mr. Baker, of Illinois, and myself against it. 

Congress continued to pass bills making these grants 
until the Democratic party, which had been growing 
in strength in the House, was able to resist these 
measures, and as an evidence of public condemnation 
of this system of subsidies, that party obtained con- 
trol of the House by the election of members of 
Congress in 1874. That election was fatal to the 
railroad law-grant system. There was an extraordinary 
tendency in the party then in power to build up 
private interests by subsidies from the public treasury 
and through grants of that most valuable of all public 
wealth — public lands. Among the earliest measures of 
the 44th Congress, elected in 1874, was a declaration 
of the Democratic House condemning the whole, system 
of subsidies, whether in money, bonds, or grants of 
land. 

The whole policy broke down the moment the 
Democratic Party came into power in the House of 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 455 

Representatives but it was manifest that most of the 
land granted to railroad corporations, notwithstanding 
each of them was required to complete their railroad 
within a definite period, regarded the grants as a 
naked gratuity and intended to hold the lands until 
by the labor of emigrants and settlers they should be 
greatly increased in value, when, instead of an " aid" 
to construct a railroad, it would construct the railroad 
and make it a generous gift from the Government. 
Indeed, from the beginning, the successful lobbyist 
who obtained these grants treated them as a generous 
gift from Congress. They seemed confident, as time 
has shown, that whether they complied with the law 
making the grants or not, they would be fully pro- 
tected. The result was that no roads, as a general 
rule, were constructed within the period prescribed by 
law when the whole road was required to be con- 
structed. The House of Representatives, in the 47th 
Congress, when all of these grants finally expired, the 
last to expire being that to the Texas Pacific on the 
4th day of July, 1882, unfortunately for the country 
was under the control of the Republican Party. Bills 
were introduced at once to declare the forfeiture of 
all of these grants when the railroads were not 
completed. They, naturally, would have been referred 
to the Committee on Public Lands, but strange enough 
they were, in the main, referred to the Committee 
on Judiciary as if there had been any doubt as to 
the right of Congress to require the forfeiture of the 



45^ HE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

grants, at least to the extent that the railroads were 
not completed within the time prescribed by law. For 
all these grants continued the provision, at least in 
substance, that if the roads were not completed 
within a definite time, generally ten years — the lands 
should revert to the United States and the power to 
dispose of them should terminate within the period of 
time named, or terms equally explicit as to the 
conditions. The Democrats were determined at once 
to enforce these forfeitures, and the Northern Pacific 
grant, one of the greatest and most valuable ever 
made by Congress, involving some 42,500,000 acres of 
land, or a territory twice as large as the State of 
Indiana, which had expired on the 4th day of July, 
1879, was one where the right of forfeiture was clear 
and unquestionable, for the greater part of the road 
remained unconstructed years after the time for the 
final completion of the road had expired. There was 
an express provision in the act making that grant, 
which became a law on the second day of July, 1864, 
that the lands should be forfeited if the road was 
not constructed by the time named by the law, July 
4, 1876. Congress twice extended the period and 
yet on the 4th of July, 1879, the road was but fairly 
begun. When the bill was introduced by me on the 
16th day of January, 1882, declaring the forfeiture of 
this grant, and all others, at least 1,700 miles oi the 
road were not completed or even commenced. An 
independent railroad from Portland, Oregon, had al- 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 457 

ready been started eastward and reached a distance 
of some 225 miles without a dollar of subsidy from 
the Government. On the eastern end many railroads 
were being constructed in every direction. Common 
justice to the people demanded that that grant, as 
well as all the other grants held by defaulting land- 
grant corporations, should be forfeited, at least to the 
extent of the land not earned within the period 
prescribed by law for the completion of the respective 
railroads. 

On the 6th of February, 1882, Mr. Cobb, of Indiana, 
introduced a similar bill ; both were referred to the 
Committee on Public Lands. Many bills declaring the 
forfeiture of particular grants were referred to the 
Judiciary Committee. On the latter committee Mr. 
Proctor Knott, Judge Payson, and other members de- 
manded a hearing on these bills. Yet from the first 
day to the last of that House of Representatives, over 
which Speaker Keifer presided as Speaker, notwith- 
standing persistent effort, the more urgent as many 
thousand miles of these land-grant railroads were then 
subject to forfeiture without the least shadow of defense, 
not one single vote could be obtained on any bill 
declaring a forfeiture. The members of the House 
demanding these forfeitures were absolutely ignored by 
the Speaker and the controlling majority. It seems 
just to assert that this House in the Forty-seventh 
Congress was organized with express reference to the 
defeat of all attempts to declare the forfeiture of these lands. 



458 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

As soon as the Forty-eighth Congress was fully 
organized, with Mr. Carlisle, Speaker, the policy of this 
House as to these grants was instantly reversed. The 
following resolutions, which I had the honor to submit 
to the House on the 2ist day of January, 1884, were 
promptly adopted. I think they fully express the 
principles of the Democratic party in relation to the 
public lands : 

Resolved, That, in the judgment of this House, all the public lands hereto- 
fore granted to States and corporations to aid in the construction of rail- 
roads, so far as the same are now subject to forfeiture by reason of the non- 
fulfillment of the conditions on which the grants were made, ought to be 
declared forfeited to the United States and restored to the public domain. 

Resolved, That it is of the highest public interest that the laws touching 
the public lands should be so framed and administered as to ultimately secure 
freehold therein to the greatest number of citizens ; and to that end all 
laws facilitating speculation in the public lands or authorizing or permitting 
the entry or purchase thereof in large bodies ought to be repealed and all 
of the public lands adapted to agriculture (subject to bounty grants and 
those in aid of education, ought to be reserved for the benefit of actual and 
bona fide settlers, and disposed of under the provisions of the Homestead 
laws only. 

Resolved, That the Committee on the Public Lands is hereby instructed 
to report to the House bills to carry into effect the views- expressed in the 
foregoing resolutions; that said committee shall be authorized to report 
such bills at any time, subject only to revenue and appropriation bills, and 

the same shall in like order be entitled to consideration. 

« 

As^ to the Equity of Forfeiting these Grants. 
It has been claimed that time was not of the es- 
sence of the grants, and that the railroad corporations 
might hold the land until, by the industry and ener- 
gy of the whole people, the country should be set- 
tled up and the lands increased in value. If this 
view be correct, then the infamy of these grants is 
the more apparent ; instead of being grants to " aid " 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 459 

ia the construction of railroads and open up the 

country, these grants should be designated as gifts 

of Congress to wealthy gentlemen to be enhanced in 

value by the labor of the American people. If time 

was not of the essence of these grants, why did the 

Northern Pacific and the others ask for an extension 

which Congress graciously granted ? Let us look at 

this matter further. Take the case of the Northern 

Pacific Railroad for example. 

According to the last report of the Commissioner of 

Railroads, this company had received up to December 

31, 1 836, patents for 13,845,972 acres, and had sold 

5,977,060.99 acres, for which there was received in 

cash $21,324,039.07; still due, $3,7S^>^3^^3^ making 

in all for these 5,977,060.99 acres granted to that 

corporation the sum of $25,082,000. The words of the 

Commissioner are as follows : 

The total number of acres of land received by this company from the 
Government by patent and certification, December 31, 1886, was 13,845,- 
082.50, of which 5,977,0609,9 acres have been sold. From these, sales the 
company has received $21,324,039 07, and there are outstanding on time 
sales $3,758,836.63. 

Assuming that the residue of the 13,845,072 acres 
patented to that corporation shows the same return, 
something more than $3.50 an acre, what will be 
realized from the lands for which that company has 
already obtained patents from the General Land 
Office ? The enormous sum of $48,457,742, a sum 
within $27,000,000 of the cost of the entire road from 
Lake Superior to Portland, .Oregon, with the branch 
across the Cascade range of mountains to Puget Sound, 



460 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

an imperial possession. The whole cost of the entire 
system is estimated by the Commissioner of Railroads 
at $75,000,000. The Commissioner tells us in his re- 
port that the corporation has reserved its coal and 
timber lands. Of course these public -spirited gentle- 
men who have obtained this grant of 42,500,000 acres 
of the people's land will withhold the valuable coal 
and timber land to enlarge the imperial wealth a 
benevolent Congress has given them out of the 
patrimony of the people. Yet it is claimed that it 
would be inequitable to declare the remainder of this 
imperial grant forfeitd back to the people ! 

I think the injustice was in making the grants. 
The natural results of such a fostering of wealth by 
law made its appearance in due time. Instead of 
these grants ever operating for the benefit of the 
settler, the result was exactly the reverse. Before the 
homesteader was ready to move, before the landless 
citizen could gather his family around him and start 
on the journey for a home on your public domain, 
the prospectors, land-jobbers, and ' capitalists from 
Europe as well as America had invaded all that 
country within the reach of the railroad and ap- 
propriated in large estates the very cream of the 
fertile lands'. Take Dakota. You could travel there 
years ago for weary miles and miles and see on every 
hand the virgin soil untouched. Yet every acre of 
that land had been entered years before, and that too 
by a well organized system of frauds humiliating to 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 46 1 

our people and dishonoring to our Government. 
Besides, was it not natural, when we undertook to 
imitate the policy of European nations, of great sub- 
sidies enlarging the wealth of the favored few, that 
just such events should transpire as those which 
caused the people of this country a few years ago to 
blush in beholding the fruits of these imperial grants 
inuring to the benefit of the capitalists and nobility 
of Europe ? And how natural it was, when the 
celebration of the alleged completion of this railroad 
occurred, that the favored class of Europe should be 
the guests of that corporation. We can not make 
such grants without reaping a harvest of misfortune, 
without producing the same disastrous results which 
have reduced Europe to a land of palaces and huts. 
The fruits of subsidy in all nations are the same — 
the wealth and luxury of the favored class, the 
poverty and wretchedness of the people. 

The circumstances under which these grants were 
made ought to be considered in determining whether 
these corporations should be held to a strict per- 
formance of their contracts. The fact is that while the 
American people were watching, with patriotic solicitude, 
the movements of our armies, while those the most 
interested of all men in the public domain were rush- 
ing into the ranks of our armies to steady and up- 
hold the tottering pillars of the Union, at that very 
time ex-governors of States, ex-members of Congress, 
men of high social and political standing were lobby- 



462 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



ing for these grants and securing, by the favor of Con- 
gress, vast portions of our national wealth — public 
lands — of especial and inestimable value to the men — 
the laboring men of the country — who were then im- 
periling their lives in the national defense. In that 
unpatriotic and mercenary spirit these grants were ob- 
tained by which the people were robbed of their rights 
and imperial fortunes were secured. 

Congress was engaged in the work of parceling out 
among mercenary capitalists' our public domain when 
the clash of arms could almost be heard in Congress. 

Are great grants of land obtained under such cir- 
cumstances to be carefully guarded by Congress and 
the courts of justice ? Will Congress refuse to declare 
their forfeiture when a just ground for forfeiture is 
presented ? 

No revolution was ever more complete than that 
witnessed in the organization of the House in the 
Forty-eight Congress. The foregoing resolutions of the 
2 1st of January, 1884, became, from then to the present 
hour, the rule of the House of Representatives. Under 
this policy the following land-grants have been forfeited 
and the land restored to the people. 

^Congressional Action on Land-grant Forfeiture Bills. 



Name of Railroad. 


Congress. 


Acres. 


Oregon Central 


Forty-eighth. 
do 


810,880 


Texas Pacific 


18,500,000 

300,000 

23,871,360 


Iron Mountain of Missouri 


do 


Atlantic and Pacific 


Forty-ninth.. 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



463 



Tuscaloosa and Mobile 




•\ 


Mobile and New Orleans 






Klyton and Beard's Bluff 










► *7,ooo,ooo 






New Orleans and State Line... 






Iron Mountain of Arkansas 










} 


Total 


50,482,240 



*Estimated. 

But no action of Congress would be of much avail 
in securing the public lands to actual settlers without 
the efficient co-operation of that greatest of all the 
Bureaus of the Government, the General Land Office. 
Hon. N. McFarland, Commissioner of the General Land 
Office under the last Republican Administration, is an 
upright and honorable gentleman, and was an honest 
public officer, but the unblushing system of frauds 
which had their origin in the railroad land grant 
system, growing every year the more aggressive in 
view of the rapid appropriation of the public domain 
into private estates, was beyond his control. It re- 
quired a man of the inflexible will and rugged honesty 
of Hon. William A. J. Sparks, of Illinois, cordially 
supported by the Chief Executive of the nation, to 
break down an organized power ; a syndicate of public 
land piracy which, struggling to appropriate .into great 
private estates the public lands, aspired to control 
Departments and Bureaus and even the Courts of 
Justice. 

It is not alone the power of the railroad land grant 
system with which the Bureau of public lands must 
contend, but also the powerful, and unscrupulous, 



464 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Syndicates — European as well as American — which seek 
to monopolize the public lands into large estates, 
rendered possible by the present state of the land 
laws, and the powerful combinations to create and 
sustain pretended Spanish and Mexican grants in the 
land we acquired from the Mexican Republic. 

A careful inquiry will reveal the fact that the 
present Administration has absolutely reversed the land 
policy of the Republican administrations. Instead of a 
policy that favored the grants to railroad corporations, 
the Spanish and Mexican grants, and the enormous 
claims under entries made for speculation, every effort 
is now made, consistent with justice, to restore the 
public lands to the bona fide settler. General Sparks 
and his able successor, Col. S. M. Stockslager, pursu- 
ing the same line of policy, under the earnest approval 
of the President, have restored, by Executive order, 
52,437,373 acres to the public domain, as will be seen 
by the following table : 



Land actually restored to the public domain. 



Acreage. 



Lands in granted railroad limits restored 

Railroad indemnity lands restored 

Private land claims; withdrawn lands restored 

Entries under pre-emption, homestead, timber-culture, desert, 
mineral, and timber land laws canceled in regular course of 
examination and proceedings in General Land Office for 
abandonment, illegality, and other causes 

Invalid State selections restored to United States 



Total actually restored to the public domain and opened 
to entry and settlement , 



2,108,417 

21,323,600 

576,000 



27,460,608 
968,747 



52,437.373 



I am glad to state that no President of the United 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 465 

States has taken so lively an interest, as shown by 
the public records, in securing the public lands to 
actual settlers as the present Chief Executive. 

According to a statement before me, recently prepar- 
ed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, 
the following table presents the present estimate of 
the area of the entire public domain from the begin- 
ning, east and west of the Mississippi, including 
Alaska and the Indian Territory, and the number of 
acres that have been disposed of up to June 30, 1888. 

Acres. 

Entire Public Domain 1,816,129,464 

Lands disposed of 603,580,047 

Remaining 1,212,549,417 

This statement would be exceedingly deceptive and 
misleading if the suggestion was not made that this 
great area of 1,212,549,417 acres embraces all the 
rivers, mountains, lakes, lagoons, arid lands and other 
wastes, of the entire public domain. It is estimated, 
by the General Land Office, that there are still re- 
maining of the arable lands of the public domain 
75,000,000 acres, and there are still vast regions of 
the public domain that with irrigation will become 
the most fertile lands on the globe. 

Last year, however, according to the Report of the 
Commissioner of Public Lands, the sales, entries, and 
selection of the public lands under the various acts of 
Congress amounted to 25,111,400. And the Commis- 
sioner of the General Land Office states that cash entries 



466 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

of the public lands under the Pre-emption law enorm- 
ously exceed those of any former year. This state- 
ment is in harmony with the fact that the entries of the 
public lands in the five public land States of the 
south — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi and 
Louisiana — were so enormously increased during the last 
year that those States called upon Congress to suspend 
all laws permitting entries of the public lands except 
the Homestead law, and a joint Resolution was promptly 
passed for that purpose, as follows : 

Resolved by the Senate and Honee of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, That the public lands of the United States in 
the States of Mississippi, Arkansas and Alabama now subject to private sale 
as offered lands, shall be disposed of under and according to the provisions 
of the Homestead laws only until the pending legislation affecting such lands 
shall be disposed of, or the present session of Congress shall adjourn : 
Provided, That any isolated or disconnected tracts or parcels of the public 
domain less than one hundred and sixty acres may be ordered sold at 
private or public sale for not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per 
acre by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, when, in his judg- 
ment, it would be proper to do so. 

Approved, May 14, 1888. 

In regard to that vast region of our country known 
as " Desert Land" there are many reasons for believing 
that those lands, under wise legislation, will become 
fertile fields and furnish homes for millions of our 
people. In the report I submitted to the House of 
Representatives on the 28th day of last -February, 
from the Committee on Public Lands, on the public 
land bill, in regard to such lands I made the follow- 



ing statement 



DESERT LANDS. 



There are, however, as is well known, extensive regions of country, especial- 
ly in Arizona, New Mexico, and California, which without irrigation are 
now assumed to be valueless. It is to those regions of country the desert- 
land feature of this bill especially applies. 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 467 

The committee has sought to apply the homestead policy as far as possible 
to these arid lands. Each entry is confined to one half section. No one 
can enter this class of land unless he is a bona fide resident of the State or 
Territory in which the land is situated. The patent, if issued must be to 
the entryman, his widow, heirs, or devisees. He must actually reclaim and 
put in actual and successful cultivation one-eighth of the half section of 
land, viz, 40 acres, within the three years. He must make oath that his 
entry is for his own benefit ; not for any other person, corporation, 
or syndicate. He pays 25 cents per acre at the time of entry, solely as a 
pledge of good faith in making the entry. 

The committe submit that, in dealing with this portion of the public 
domain, which will be of very great value with irrigation, and for the 
present so valueless without it, they have approached as nearly as is possible 
to the spirit and purpose of the Homestead law But it is not to be denied 
that in the progress of opening up this region of country, which promises so 
much with proper development, combinations may be formed, notwith- 
standing the safeguards which are embodied in this bill, to monopolize these 
lands through great capital investments, and it is the opinion of your com- 
mittee that it would be better that these lands should remain forever a 
desert than be monopolized into great private landed estates. The vigilance 
of Congress will be required to prevent a dangerous monopoly of these so- 
called desert lands. The value of the wealth created by such monopoly is 
vastly more than over balanced by the evil it inflicts. 

It will be readily seen that, as to this region of 
country, greater danger is to be apprehended from 
the opportunities offered to great capital interests for 
monopoly of lands, (the greatest curse that can be 
inflicted on a» people) than in any other portion of 
the United States. 

During the present session of Congress two bills 
have passed the House which cover the whole subject 
of the public lands, both of which were reported from 
the House Committee on Public Lands. 

1. A bill to secure to actual settlers the public 
lands of the United States adapted to Agriculture ; to pro- 
tect the forests on the public domain, and for other purposes. 
28 



468 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

This bill which passed the House on the 27th day 
of June, 1888, if passed by the Senate will cover the 
third and last period in the history of the great 
public domain of the United States. This bill, for 
the first time in our legislation, classifies our public 
lands. It recognizes five classes only, abolishing all 
other modes of disposing of the public lands. 1st. 
Agricultural. 2d. Mineral. 3rd. Timber. 4th. Desert, 
and 5th. Reserved. 

Under this bill all public lands of the United States 
adapted to Agriculture are subject to disposal under 
the Homestead law only. This bill, if it becomes a law, 
completes the Homestead law of May 20, 1862. If 
that Homestead law had embraced the provisions of 
this bill, many generations would still elapse before 
the laboring men of this country would dispair of 
obtaining a home and freehold on the public domain. 
Generations to come would have indulged the cheering 
hope of independent homes ! 

This bill also protects the remaining coal fields and 
streams of water on the public domain from the curse 
of monopoly and protects the forests of the public 
domain from destruction. 

I must add that this bill wholly rejects the idea 
of the Government deriving a pecuniary profit from its 
lands adapted to Agriculture. The central idea and 
leading and main purpose of the bill is to devote the 
remaining public lands to the single purpose of secur- 
ing independent homes for our people. 



THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



469 



The other bill, which passed the House on the 6th 
day of July, 1888, declares the forfeiture to the United 
States, and restoration to the public domain, of all 
lands heretofore granted by Congress to railroad cor- 
porations not earned within the time prescribed by 
the law making the grant. The justice of this measure 
no man can deny. 

The effect of this bill is to forfeit the following 
grants and restore the land to the public domain to 
be disposed of under the Homestead law, namely : 



Name of Railroad. 



Gulf and Ship Island '. 

Coosa and Tennessee -» 

Coosa and Chattanooga 

Mobile and Girard 

Selma, Rome and Dalton* 

Atlantic, Gulf and West India Transit 

Pensacola and Georgia 

Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas 

Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw 

Marquette, Houghton and Ontonagon 

Ononagon and Brule River 

LaCrosse and Milwaukee 

Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha 

Wisconsin Central .• 

St. Vincent extension St. Paul and Pacific (now St. Paul, 

Minneapolis and Manitoba) 

Western Railroad 

Southern Minnesota Railway Extension... 

Hastings and Dakota 

Northern Pacific 

California and Oregon 

Oregon and California 

Southern Pacific 



Total. 



Estimated 

number of acres 

which will be 

forfeited by the 

House Bill. 



652,800 
140,160 
144,000 
651,264 
258,624 
676,000 
679,680 
364,800 
176,256 
294,400 
288,000 
195.724 
1,446,400 
464,480 

1,113,600 

243.712 

832,115 

819,840 

36,907.741 

1,740,800 

2,086,4^0 

4,147,200 



54,323 996 



*Lands certified to State for this road prior to May 23, 1872, amounting 
to 440,700.16 acres, were confirmed to State by act of that date (17 Stat. L., 
159), for sole use and benefit of the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad Com- 
pany. The lands so confirmed may not be subject to forfeiture. 



470 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

If these two measures shall receive the approval of 
the Senate much will have been done to retrieve the 
fatal error of giving over to corporations and monopoly 
a vast portion of the most valuable wealth any 
nation ever possessed — the wealth that gives independ- 
ent homes to the people ! 

In another generation the history of the public 
domain of the United States will be written. The 
historian in reviewing the successive generations which 
will have controlled this public domain through more 
than a century — the grandest possession, the noblest 
trust ever committed by Providence to any people — 
will exult in the long periods when unselfish patriot- 
ism and far-seeing statesmanship hoarded the public 
lands, and held them in reserve for freeholds of the 
American people — freeholds, the strongest bulwarks for 
free institutions that human wisdom can suggest — and 
will deplore the period when vast millions of acres of 
this public wealth were given over to sordid avarice 
in great landed estates. 




WILLIAM M. SPRINGER. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE TERRITORIES. 



Hon. William M. Springer, 

Chairman of the Committee on Territories^ National House of 

Rep re sen ta lives . 

'T'HERE are eight organized territories in the United 
States, comprising 859,000 square miles in area. The 
population of these territories is estimated, by the Sec- 
retary of the Interior in his annual report to Con- 
gress for the year ending June 30th, 1887, as fol- 
lows: — Arizona 90,009, Dakota 568,400, Idaho 97,250, 
Montana, 130,000, New Mexico 160,000, Utah 196,500, 
Washington 142,391, Wyoming 85,000, making the 
total 1,469,041 inhabitants. 

In addition to the organized territories there is 
the Indian Territory, comprising 69,000 square miles 
in area, which is now settled chiefly by Indians and 
half-breeds, the eastern portion being occupied by 
what are known as the five civilized tribes, and the 
western portion by various semi-civilized tribes. That 
portion outside of the five civilized tribes will, in the 
near future, be organized into a territory to be known 
as Oklahoma. 

We have also, that vast, and in the main, unin- 

(473) 



474 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

habitable region known as Alaska, comprising 531,000 
square miles, and containing a population of 6,800 
whites, 5,800 civilized Indians, and 26,800 not civil- 
ized. The resources of Alaska are as yet undeveloped, ex- 
cept so far as has been done by the Alaska Fur and 
Seal Company, and some mining enterprises recently 
established. There is no doubt, however, of the great 
value and importance of the resources of Alaska, which, 
it is to be hoped, will be- developed in the near future 
The population at this time being mostly uncivilized, 
the development of the Territory's resources has not 
been great, but, as the states and the other territories 
become more densely populated we may anticipate a 
large increase in population in Alaska. 

For the purposes of this article we will consider 
only the organized territories, and the policy to be 
pursued in reference to them in the future. 

An impression has prevailed generally to the effect 
that a certain amount of population was required to 
entitle a territory to admission into the Union. This 
is an error. There is no limitation on the power of 
Congress to admit new states into the Union. The 
language of the Constitution — Section 3, Article 4 — 
is : "New States may be admitted by the Congress 
into this Union ; but no new state shall be formed 
or erected within the jurisdiction of any other state ; 
nor any state be formed by the junction of two or 
more states or parts of states, without the consent 
of the legislatures of the states concerned, as well 



THE TERRITORIES. 475 

as of the Congress." This provision is the sole au- 
thority and limitation of power to be found in the 
Constitution on the subject. Under this authority 
twenty-five new states have been admitted into the 
Union ; Vermont being the first, having been ad- 
mitted in 1791, and Colorado the last, which was 
admitted in 1876. The population of the several 
states has varied with varied circumstances. The 
smallest population of any state at the time of ad- 
mission was that of Illinois, which was admitted in 
1818, and which had but 34,620 inhabitants: the 
largest was that of Wisconsin, winch was admitted 
in 1848 with a population of I So, 000. The states of 
Maine and West Virginia were carved out of existing 
states and had much larger populations, while Texas, 
at the time of admission, had but 134,000 inhabitants. 
The population of Nevada, which was admitted in 
1864 was but 40,000 and the estimates are that it 
does not exceed that number at this time. 

It would be an interesting narrative to trace, in the 
history of our country, the various steps which have 
led up to the acquisition of territory and admission 
of the several states into the Union. Many of the 
most important events in our history have grown out 
of the acquisition of territory and the admission of new 
states. These historical events are already fresh in 
the minds of the people, and need not be recapitulated 
at this time. I shall endeavor, however, to call at- 
tention to the immense area, resources and future possi- 



476 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

bilities of our territories, and present some reasons 
for their early admission into the Union upon an 
equality with the original states. 

The area of the territory belonging- to the United 
States, outside of the States, embraces about one mil- 
lion five hundred thousand square miles. Of this area 
there are in Alaska, as before stated, 571,390 square 
miles ; in the Indian Territory, including the five 
civilized tribes, 64,690 square miles ; and in the eight 
organized territories there are 859,000 square miles. 
Of these territories Dakota has the largest area, hav- 
ing 149,100 square miles. Montana is next, having 
146,080 square miles. New Mexico has 122,580, and 
Arizona 113,000 square miles. The organized territories, 
including the Indian Territory, embrace about 900,000 
square miles — an area nearly one-third as great as 
that comprised in the states already in the Union. 
It has been a very common belief that the greater 
portion of the land in the territories is either arid or 
mountainous, leaving but a small area susceptible of 
cultivation. It is also assumed that the arid regions 
are comparatively worthless, except for grazing purposes. 
This is a great mistake. In recent years improved 
systems of irrigation, and the mere cultivation of the 
soil in many places, have demonstrated the fact that 
the greater portions of the so-called arid regions are 
susceptible of a high state of cultivation, and that 
when brought into cultivation the lands produce more 
abundantly, and the crops are more reliable than in 



/ 
THE TERRITORIES. 477 

other parts of the country where rain-fall is relied 
upon. Recent investigations, and the rapid develop- 
ment of resources in the arid regions, have demon- 
strated the fact that the area of irreclaimable arid 
lands is quite moderate in extent. But a few years 
ago a large portion of Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and 
Dakota were supposed to be arid wastes, but farming 
settlements have been moving steadily westward, and 
hundreds of thousands of acres heretofore supposed to 
be arid and unproductive have been reclaimed, and 
are producing the principal cereals without irrigation. 
At the same time large enterprises have sprung up 
in the territories whose object is to construct irrigat- 
ing ditches, by means of which extensive areas of 
hitherto arids lands have been brought into a high 
state of cultivation. Western Kansas and Nebraska 
are fast filling up with a farming population, and all 
of eastern Colorado is being rapidly brought into 
cultivation without the aid of irrigation. According 
to the present ratio of increase in the reclamation of 
arid lands it will not be many years until the whole 
region between the Missouri River and the base of 
the Rocky Mountains will be brought into a high 
state of cultivation, and will produce everything that 
supports animal existence as abundantly as does the 
Mississippi Valley itself. Further west, in the valleys 
of the mountains, and upon the plains of New Mexico, 
Arizona, Utah, California, and in other arid regions, 
irrigation is rapidly reclaiming the waste places. In 



478 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Southern California the reclaimed arid lands are the 
most valuable for agriculture and horticulture of any 
upon the continent. In the northern territories of 
Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming, 
there are immense agricultural and horticultural possi- 
bilities. The agricultural resources of Dakota are being 
rapidly developed, and give promise in the near future 
of being equal to those of the great States south 
and east of that territory. We are in the habit of 
speaking of the agricultural resources of the Mississippi 
Valley as greater in extent than those of any other 
region in the world, but I am of the opinion that 
within twenty-five years from this time the region between 
lines running north and south from the British Pos- 
sessions through Kansas City and Denver will embrace 
an area as rich in agricultural resources as is the 
Mississippi Valley itself, or all that region lying be- 
tween Kansas City and Cincinnati, and the Lakes and 
the Gulf. This region west of Kansas City will also 
support an immense population. In the near future 
we may reasonably expect large cities and populous 
states where today there is but a meagre population. 
In view, therefore, of the future possibilities of our 
territories, every encouragement should be given by 
Congress to the development of their resources. Be- 
fore many years we must provide for the admission 
into the Union of eight or nine new States, which 
will add sixteen or eighteen Senators to the Senate 
of the United States, and many more Members to 



THE TERRITORIES. 4/9 

the House of Representatives. The political power 
which these new communities will exert will be very 
great. A broad and liberal policy should be pursued 
by Congress in reference to these territories in order 
that an intelligent and patriotic population may be 
invited to settle there and lay the foundations of 
great and prosperous commonwealths therein. Four of 
these territories, viz : Dakota, Montana, Washington, 
and New Mexico, already have a population which 
has hitherto been deemed sufficient to entitle a ter- 
ritory to statehood, as well as that settled condition 
of society, and respect for the laws and obligations 
of public contracts, which entitles them to admission. 
Utah has also the requisite population, but owing to 
the peculiar condition of her society, growing out of 
the institution of polygamy, her admission as a State 
will be retarded for a time. 

The Legislature of Dakota in March, 1887, passed 
an act submitting to the vote of the people of the 
whole territory the question of division. The election 
took place at the regular November election of 1887. 
In that election there were cast, upon the proposition 
of division, 37,784 votes for division, and 32,913 votes 
against division, making a majority in the whole ter- 
ritory of 4,781 votes in favor of division. This small 
majority was a great disappointment to those favoring 
the division of the territory. The vote was small in 
comparison with the whole voting population. There 
were undoubtedly 67,000 voters in the whole territory 



480 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

who did not participate in that election at all. The 
proposition submitted was for the division of the ter- 
ritory into two parts, the southern part to constitute 
the State of South Dakota and the northern part the 
Territory of North Dakota. If the computation is 
made in the respective divisions it will be seen that 
South Dakota gave a majority of 15,259 for division, 
while the counties to compose the proposed territory 
of North Dakota gave a majority of 10,385 against 
division. In North Dakota, every county, with two ex- 
ceptions, gave a majority against division. Of the 
eighty-three counties in the Territory only thirty-seven 
gave majorities in favor of division and forty-six gave 
majorities against division. By an examination .of the 
map of the Territory it will appear that not' one- 
fourth of the area of the whole territory voted in 
favor of division. If the wishes of the people are to 
be considered in determining the question of division, 
the people of North Dakota are entitled to the same 
consideration as are those of South Dakota. When it 
is proposed to divide a State or Territory into two 
Territories or States, the people of each section or 
proposed 'new division have a right to be consulted. 
A large majority of the people of North Dakota, it 
seems, are opposed to being set off by themselves 
into a separate government. They are entitled to 
have their wishes respected, for they desire to preserve 
the existing union of Dakota, while the people of 
South Dakota seek to dissolve the union and set up 
a new and separate government for themselves. 



THE TERRITORIES. 48 I 

* 

The population of Dakota does not entitle her at 
this time to be admitted into the Union as two 
States. There are but eight States in the Union 
having less population than is claimed for the whole 
of Dakota. Thirty States in the Union have a great- 
er population, and the States of New York and 
Pennsylvania have nearly ten millions of people, and 
but four Senators in the United States Senate. Illinois 
and Ohio have over six millions of inhabitants and 
have but four Senators. The average population of 
all the States, according to the census of 1880, is 
1,342,000. According to the census of Dakota in 1885 
that territory had but 415,000 inhabitants, or about 
one-third of the average population of the States of 
the Union. It would be manifestly unjust to all the 
people of the United States, to carve two States out 
of the present territory of Dakota, which has but one- 
third of the average population of the existing states. 
It is claimed, however, that Dakota is rapidly increas- 
ing in population ; the same may be said of all the 
States and territories. 

The friends of the division of Dakota point to her 
large area as a reason for division. But area should 
not be the basis for the admission of the new States 
into the Union. Nevada has 110,700 square miles, 
and only 40000 population. Texas has 265,000 square 
miles, and California has 158,000 square miles. Dakota 
will be next in area, having 149,000, and Montana 
has nearly that amount, viz : 146,000. If it is con- 



482 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

tended that Dakota should be divided on account of 
her area, Montana should also be divided for the 
same reason; and New Mexico with 122,000, and 
Arizona with 113,000 square miles should be erected 
into three States instead of two. The movement for 
the division of Dakota is bottomed solely upon parti- 
san considerations. Two States would require two sets 
of officials, twice the expense for State administration, 
and would give the Republican office holders greater 
opportunity to subsist at public expense. But above 
all, the movement has for its object the addition of 
two Republian Senators to the United States Senate, 
and a corresponding increase of votes in the Electoral 
College. The patriotism which supports this move- 
ment is that patriotism which looks solely to party 
ascendency. The best interests of ' the people of the 
Territory require that Dakota should be maintained in 
her integrity. She is destined to take her place very 
soon as one of the greatest and most prosperous 
States in the Union. Those who may reside in the 
State hereafter will regard as their greatest benefactors 
those who have prevented her dismemberment. 

Both parties in Congress seem to be agreed as to 
the propriety of the immediate admission of Montana 
and Washington Territories into the Union as States. 
Montana was organized by an act of Congress May 
26th, 1864. It comprises an area of 146,000 square 
miles. The estimated population in November, 1887, 
was 130,000, and at this time it is undoubtedly over 



THE TERRITORIES. 483 

150,000. The mines of the Territory produced, for 
the year 1887, $25,000,000 worth of precious metals. 
The population and the resources of Montana give 
promise, in the future, of a great State. 

Washington Territory was organized in 1853. She 
has an area of 69,000 square miles. The population 
in November last was estimated at 142,000. The 
population in November, 1888, is estimated at 160,000. 
The resources of the Territory are great and growing, 
especially the commerce and other commercial interests. 

New Mexico was organized in 1850 and comprises 
an area of 122,000 square miles. The population in 
November last was estimated at 160,000. The census 
of 1890 will probably show a population of not less 
than 200,000 ; the same may also be said of the Ter- 
ritories of Montana and Washington. Much of the 
land in New Mexico is arid but it is being rapidly 
reclaimed and produces, with the aid of irrigation, very 
abundantly. In all these territories stock raising is an 
important industry. 

The Committee on Territories of the House of Re- 
presentatives has reported a bill to enable the people 
of Dakota, Montana, Washington, and New Mexico to 
form Constitutions and State Governments, and to be 
admitted into the Union on equal footing with the 
original States. This bill is opposed by the Republicans 
in the House for two reasons : First, the proposed 
admission of Dakota as a whole State : Second, 
the proposed admission of New Mexico. The minority 



484 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

of the Committee on Territories opposed the pro- 
posed admission of New Mexico on the ground 
that her population was of a character which rendered 
her admission into the Union undesirable. The real 
objection to the proposed admission of New Mexico is 
based upon the fear that that territory will become a 
* Democratic State. It is now represented by Mr. 
Joseph, a Democratic delegate, who received about 
4,000 plurality at the last' election, (1886). Twelve or 
fourteen years ago, however, when the Territory was 
represented by Stephen B. Elkins, a Republican, nearly 
every Republican in Congress voted for a bill to pro- 
vide for its admission into the Union. The bill, how- 
ever, failed to become a law by only a few votes at 
the last session of the Forty-third Congress, on a 
motion to suspend the rules, which required a two- 
thirds majority. With two or three exceptions every 
Republican in the Senate and in the House of Repre- 
sentatives in that Congress voted to admit New Mexico 
as a State into the Union. The Territory was then 
supposed to be reliably Republican and its people and 
population were such as to warrant immediate admis- 
sion, in the estimation of the Republican party at that 
time ; but now that a majority of its people are 
Democrats the Republicans have changed their minds 
and are opposed to the admission of the Territory into 
the Union. The territories of Wyoming, Idaho, Utah 
and Arizona will soon be in a condition for admission. 
If Oklahoma Territory should be organized it will be 



THE TERRITORIES. 485 

but a few years until the population there will be 
sufficient to entitle it to Statehood. 

Thus we have nine prospective States to be brought 
into the Union. Their influence and power will be 
very important ; their effect upon the politics of the 
future can scarcely be estimated ; the development of 
their resources will add immensely to our national 
wealth, and their lands will furnish homes for millions 
of people yet unborn. 
29 



CHAPTER IX. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



Hon. Newton C. Blanchard, 

Chairman of the Committee on River? and Harbors ; 

National House pf Representatives. 

T^HE treatment of this subject in this paper will 
A be confined to River and Harbor Improvement. 

The value of the great natural highways of our 
country to the people who now inhabit the United 
States, and to the generations who will follow in the 
occupancy of its territory and the control of its des- 
tinies, cannot be over-estimated. It is, therefore, the 
manifest duty of Congress to care for and adequately 
improve them. 

The Democratic Party recognizes this and in its 
National Platform of 1884 adopted the following: 

"The Federal Government should care for and improve the 
Mississippi River and other great waterways of the Republic so as 
to secure for the interior States easy and cheap transportation to 
tide-water." 

This declaration was re-affirmed by the National 
Democratic Convention which met at St. Louis in the 
present year. 

No question is now more fully settled than the 

right and duty of the Government, within proper 

limitations of economy and public necessity, to facilitate 
(486) 




NEWTON C. BLANCHARD. 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 



489 



commerce by all appropriate public works. We have 
23,000 miles of dangerous coast line on the ocean, 
exclusive of the great Lakes. The rivers of America 
are the largest in the world. After the Amazon and 
La Plata, comes the Mississippi, with a discharge per 
second of 250,000 cubic feet, at low water, to over 
1,000,000 cubic feet, at high water. This mighty 
river is equal in bulk to all the rivers of 
Europe combined, exclusive of the Volga. It is larger 
than the Yang-tse-Kiang and the Ganges, the greatest 
rivers of Asia, combined. It has 44 navigable trib- 
utaries and the aggregate navigable length of these 
rivers is 16,090 miles — more than four times the length 
of the ocean line from New York to Liverpool, and 
more than four times the distance by rail across the 
Continent, from New York to San Francisco. This 
mileage may and will be increased by the completion 
of certain improvements now under way. 

The principal of these rivers are : 
The Mississippi, from its mouth to the Falls of St. Anthony, 2,161 miles. 



The Missouri, 

The Ohio, 

The Red River, 

Arkansas " 

White 

Tennessee " 

Cumberland, 

Yellowstone, 

Ouachita, 

Wabash, 

Osage, 

Minnesota, 

Boeuf, 

Sun Flower, 



Fort Benton. Montana, 3,092 

Pittsburg, 1,021 

Slate Shoals, 986 

Wichita, Kansas, 884 

War Eagle, 779 

Knoxville, Tenn., (about) 759 

Waitsborough, Kentucky, 609 

Belle Butte, Montana, 474 

Camden, Arkansas, 384 

La Fayette, Indiana, 365 

Papinville, 303 

Patterson's, Rapids, 295 

Wallace's Landing. 280 

Clarksdale, 271 



490 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



Illinois River, from its mouth to the La Salle, 


270 


miles. 


Yazoo " " " 


" " Greenwood, Mississippi, 


228 


M 


Bayou Bartholomew. " 


" " Baxter Station, Arkansas, 


213 


" 


Black River, 








(Tributary of White)" 


*' " Doniphan, Mo., (about) 


212 


u 


Green, " " 


' " Greensburg, Kentucky, 


200 


" 


St. Francis, " " 


1 " Wittsburgh, Missouri, 


180 


11 


Tallahatchie, 


" Hills Place 


175 


•« 


Wisconsin River, " " 


' " Portage City, 


160 


" 


Cache River, " " 


• " Gray's Ferry, Arkansas, 


160 


11 


Bayou Macon, " " ' 


' " Floyd, Louisiana, 


130 


" 


Allegheny, " " 


' " Franklin, Pennsylvania, 


123 


" 


Deer Creek " " ' 


' " Stoneville, Mississippi, 


116 


" 


Monongahela River, " ' 


' " Morgantown, W. Va., 


no 


11 


Kentucky " " ' 


' " Cogar's Landing, Kentucky, 105 


" 


With 1 6 other 


rivers each with a 


navigable 



length of less than 100 miles. 

Besides the rivers above given as forming the 
Mississippi system, other rivers of importance in our 
country are the following : — 

Columbia, Savannah, Hudson, James, Potomac, 
Alabama, Tombigbee, Red River of the North, Sac- 
ramento, Kennebec, Penobscot, Delaware, Coosa, Flint, 
Chattahoochie and Cape Fear. In addition, there are 
many other smaller streams which form important 
links in our great system of inland navigation. Many 
of these streams — navigable from. 40 to 70 miles — 
penetrate sections of country where there are no 
railroads and where their waterway affords to the 
people of such section the only means of access to 
and from the markets of the country, save the ordinary 
country roads. 

These rivers are all navigable water-ways of the 
United States. They come within the definition of 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 49 1 

such as laid down by the Supreme Court of the United 

States in the case of the Daniel Ball, 10 Wallace, 

557, as follows : 

"Those rivers must be regarded as public, navigable 
rivers in law which are navigable in fact. And they 
are navigable in fact when they are used, or are sus- 
ceptible of being used, in their ordinary condition, as 
highways for commerce, over which trade and travel 
are, or may be, conducted in the customary modes of 
trade and travel on water. And they constitute naviga- 
ble waters of the United States, within the meaning 
of the acts of Congress, in contradistinction from the 
navigable waters of the States, when they form, in 
their ordinary condition, by themselves, or by uniting 
with other waters, a continued highway over which 
commerce is, or may be, carried on with other States, 
or foreign countries, in the customary modes in which 
such commerce is conducted by water." 

It is thus apparent that nature has done much for 
America as regards facilities for transportation. Great 
oceans on either side and a great gulf on the south 
offer their pathways to her people ; on the north her 
inland seas, containing one-third of all the fresh water 
of the world, stand unrivalled among the lakes of all 
countries ; and her numerous rivers lie ready to hand, 
"awaiting only the application of steam to vessels to 
render them magnificent highways." 

The water-ways of our country were formed and 
presented by nature at no cost to the people, but 
they are just as valuable as if artificially constructed. 
They belong to the nation, and should, like its custom- 
houses, post-offices, military roads, and other property, 
be kept in repair. The board of management for this 



49 2 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

purpose is the Congress, and it should, " in guarding 
the people's transportation property, exercise the same 
skill, observe the same laws of economy, the same 
care and circumspection, as railway directors who are 
chosen to manage the railway lines owned by private 
interests." 

In a recent review of the Mississippi river and its 
tributaries, prepared for the Bureau of Statistics by 
Mr. Alexander D. Anderson, very interesting statistics 
are employed to show that the people of the United 
States possess, in the Mississippi river and its forty- 
four navigable tributaries, highways of commerce and 
cheap transportation to the seaboard, of the commercial 
value of $2,000,000,000. That is to say, lines of rail- 
road of equal length and tonnage with said river and 
its tributaries, if constructed at the usual expense of 
such improvements, would cost the people of the United 
States- this enormous and almost incomprehensible sum. 

The appropriations heretofore made by Congress for 
the rivers and harbors of the country have not been 
sufficient for their proper improvement. The first 
appropriation made for this purpose was in 1802, and 
for the Delaware River, which received the sum of 
$30,000. Since then Congress has, with few exceptions, 
voted similar appropriations every year, but not in 
sufficient amounts. 

It is to be noted, however, that river and harbor 
bills have annually increased in amount. They have 
been keeping pace, but not equal pace, with the 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 493 

wealth, commerce and population of the country. The 
following statement shows the annual appropriations, 
beginning with the year 1871, down to the present 
time. 

For year ending June 30th, 1871, $ 3,445,900 

1872, 4,407,500 

1873, 5.588,000 

1874, 6,102,900 
Passing to year 1879, 8,323,700 

1880, 9^577495 

1881, 8,976,500 

1882, 11,451,300 

1883, 18,738,875 
. 1884,— Bill failed. 

1885, 14,948,300 
1886,— Bill failed. 
1887, 14,473,900 
1888,— Bill failed. 
The bill for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1889, 
aggregates over $22,000,000. Exclusive of the latter, 
the annual increase of the river and harbor appropri- 
ation has been a little over one and a quarter 
millions per annum since 1873. But during that time 
our population has increased from 38,000,000 to 60,- 
000,000, and during the same time there has been a 
wonderful increase in the mileage of the railway 
system of the country, upon whose exactions river and- 
harbor improvement is intended to be a check. 

In 1830 there were 23 miles of railroad; in 1850, 
9,000 miles; and at the present time over 130,000 
miles, aggregating nearly, or quite, a capitalization of 
$8,000,000,000, deducting one-half of which for 
depreciation &c, leaves $4,000,000,000 as the present 



494 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

market value of the railroad system of the country — 
a system which carries 400,000,000 passengers and 
500,000,000 tons of freight per annum. 

The total amount appropriated for rivers and harbors 
from the beginning of the government, March 4, 1789, 
to June 30, 1887, is $159,019,908. What a small sum 
that is when compared with the amount of the 
present cash valuation of the railroads built since 1830; 
$4,000,000,000 ! 

While this Government has expended the compara- 
tively small sum of $159,000,000, all told, on its 
rivers and harbors, it has donated in lands, and money, 
many times that amount in aid of the construction 
of railroads. It is a remarkable fact that the total 
amount expended, from the beginning of the Govern- 
ment to the present time, for river and harbor 
improvement, does not equal what is paid out in one 
year at the present time for repairs and rolling stock 
on the railroads of the country. 

Other nationalities, with rivers and harbors in no 
wise comparable to ours, have appropriated millions for 
their improvement where we appropriate thousands. 
England, with only 1,300 miles of coast line, has 
expended as much as $15,000,000 in one year on her 
harbors. We have never expended the half of it in 
any one year on the innumerable harbors which indent 
our coast line of 23,000 miles. 

The proposition to expend as much as $30,000,000 
or $40,000,000 in a series of years in the improvement 



INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 495 

of the Mississippi River finds strenuous opposition in 
influential quarters. Yet England has expended $30,- 
000,000 on the Clyde, which is but a rivulet compared 
with the Mississippi, and $82,000,000, all told, upon 
the Mersey, which is but a spring branch compared 
with the mighty "Father of Waters." Upon some of 
her harbors, England has expended large sums — over 
$5,000,000 at Portland, over $6,500,000 at Holyhead, 
and over $7,000,000 at Plymouth. We have no harbor 
upon which we have yet expended the smallest of 
these sums. Canada has expended over $45,000,000 
on the Welland Canal and its branches — a sum equal 
to one-fourth of all the river and harbor appropriations 
of this Government from the earliest time. In the 
direction of cheaper transportation, England has ex- 
pended in the East Indies, up to this time, over 
$130,000,000, and this is in addition to $700,000,000 
she has expended in subsidizing certain railways. 
France has expended, all told, over $400,000,000 on 
her water-ways and their aggregate navigable length is 
only 7,000 miles — hardly equal to the navigable length 
of the water-ways in the single State of Louisiana. 
On the harbor of Sherbourg, France has expended 
$100,000,000 — or twice as much as this Government 
has expended on all our great harbors on the Atlantic 
and Pacific, as well as the lake coast. 

Appropriations for our rivers and lake harbors have 
always been conspicuous objects of criticism, yet the 
improvement of the navigation of our water-ways is of 



496 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

far greater importance than is imagined by most 
people, or conceded by others. 

In some quarters it is a popular belief that rail- 
roads have destroyed the usefulness of the rivers by 
killing their commerce. The theory of destruction to 
transportation benefits in consequenee of the falling off 
in some branches of river business is clearly fallacious. 
If there were not a pound of freight carried upon 
the rivers, the benefits derived from their presence 
would be incalculable, standing as they do a menace 
by nature to all artificial competition, and free to all 
who wish to use them for transportation purposes, 
upon equal terms, with minimum opportunities for 
pooling or discrimination — the great evils to-day in 
every other means of communication and transportation. 

It is true that railroads now carry the largest por- 
tion of the freight which was formerly transported by 
river or lake, but they are compelled by river and 
lake competition to carry such freight during the 
season of navigation at very low rates. The saving to 
commerce arising from our water-ways and their im- 
provement comes from the resulting low rates of 
freight, and its money value must be calculated not 
only from freight moved by water, but also upon freight 
moved by rail in competition with the water routes. 
Competent parties have estimated that our water-ways 
cheapen the cost of transportation to the people fully 
one-third. The railways competing with the water-ways 
are obliged during the season of navigation to reduce 



/ 
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. 497 

their freight charges in order to obtain business ; but 
from the time navigation closes, whether from ice on 
the northern lakes, or the low water season elsewhere, 
to its re-opening, the rates are from two to six times 
more than during the months boats are running. 

The effect of water transportation is both direct and 
indirect. It furnishes the shipper with cheap rates, 
and, also, by its competitive influence, forces the rail- 
ways to lessen charges. 

Thus, it must be apparent to all that upon our 
inland water-ways depends most largely the realization 
of cheap transportation. Cheap transportation affects 
both internal and foreign commerce and the welfare 
of both the producer and the consumer. The competi- 
tion among commercial cities is so great that a trifling 
over-charge in rates of transportation may cost the loss 
of an important market to the producer and the trade 
of an important section to the particular market. 

Measures like the inter-stat^-commerce law have much 
to commend them to the sound judgment of the 
country ; yet many well-informed people believe that 
a liberal and judicious river and harbor bill will do more 
to regulate commerce, in the sense of cheapening 
the transportation of the products of the producing 
classes to market, and their return supplies home, than 
many enactments of statutes designed, through com- 
plicated machinery and the courts, to regulate traffic. 

The value of our foreign commerce, imports and 
exports, for the fiscal year ended June 30th, 1886, 



498 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

benefited directly by them improvement of our harbors 
and indirectly by the improvement of our internal 
water-ways, was $1,314,960,966; and the total value 
of our internal commerce for the same period, bene- 
fited directly by such improvement, was estimated at 
about $30,000,000,000, or more than double the value 
of the foreign commerce of the whole world. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE MILITARY. 



General John C. Black, 
United Stales Commissioner of Pensions. 

HT HE framers of the Federal Constitution had presented to 
them a difficult task in determining the precise 
relations which should exist between the , State and 
its military arm. The fathers, as we reverently and 
affectionately designate them, had passed through the 
war of the Revolution when for years almost the sole 
expression of federal existence was in the armies of 
the Continental line. They had seen the govermei\t of 
every State fugitive before the triumphant armies of 
the King ; and had followed the seat of federal author- 
ity in its peripatetic round in search of a continued 
existence. 

Every patriot community had been invaded and laid 
waste ; there remained scarce a city or town that had 
not been occupied by a royal garrison; fire and sword 
had visited almost every county of the young confed- 
eration ; the functions of Congress were exhausted by 
the passage of brave resolutions, the pledge of reve- 
nues that did not exist, and the mortgage of a credit 

founded only in the patriotic hope of the rebellious 

(5oi) 



502 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

colonies. The army in the field, through all privations, 
kept the American Union safe for the future. 

At the end of their long service the troops, without 
sufficient clothing and without pay, were restored to 
the ranks of civil life, and under these circumstances 
they became a threat to the institutions which they 
had so heroically preserved. Kept from the extreme 
act of violence and treason, however, by the firmness 
of Washington and his great compatriots, as well as 
by the nobler emotions of their own hearts, they 
returned at last to the states from which they had been 
drawn. 

During the progress of the war of the Revolution, 
great difficulty had, at various times, arisen from the 
lack of power in the Federal Government to call directly 
upon the Militia of the Nation, that was to be, for 
their services. They had to make all the calls through 
embryotic states, and the continental union found itself 
at the mercy of detached colonies, kept together by 
a political compact, always dissoluble at pleasure among 
sovereigns, and in such straits that the change of 
administration in any of the important colonies, 
as New York or Pennsylvania, might have resulted 
in the withdrawal of such colony from the compact, and 
a refusal of its contingent of troops to serve, and the 
disablement thereby of the continental armies and that of 
the government that was to be. Had Washington 
been less great, less wise, less patriotic ; or on the 
other hand had any colony believed its political interests 



THE MILITARY. 503 

would have been better subserved 'by the reinstatement 
of its relations with Great Britain, inevitable ruin would 
have befallen the experiment. Therefore, the framers 
of the Constitution addressed themselves to present a 
system of government which would on the one hand 
free the Union from the peril of an unwilling state, 
and on the other hand from the power of an ambitious 
chief. They set themselves to the formation of a 
military system which, while drawn from the states, 
should when once organized be independent of them ; 
and which after it had become federal and committed 
to the commandership of a single man should still be within 
the control of the co-ordinate branches of government — 
the judicial, executive and legislative branches. They 
succeeded in this great enterprise ; they created a mili- 
tary system which never has nurtured an unholy ambi- 
tion or bred an usurper, and at the same time has 
been as strong as the strength of every freeman in 
the land. 

To secure the power of self-preservation — a right 
inherent in governments and men — the Federal Consti- 
tution placed the whole machinery for the creation of 
armies in the Congress. Whatever may be argued as 
to the effect of the " Common defense and general 
welfare" clause, there can be no doubt that in the 
creation, maintenance, government and regulation of 
the military forces the Constitution makes the Congress 
supreme. And it further extends that power to all 
arms-bearing citizens and makes them subject to the 



504 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Federal Legislature, recognizing, without express dec- 
laration, that the duty of bearing arms at the call of 
the properly constituted authorities is laid by the 
civil compact itself, which antedates constitutions and 
is larger than any formula of laws, upon all able- 
bodied men within the territory of the Union. The 
constitutionalists gave the Congress all the power of 
the whole people and all the states in this particular. 
Language cannot be broader or more perspicuous. 
"The Congress" (Art. 2-Sec. 15.) "Shall have the 
power to provide for the calling forth the Militia to 
execute the laws of the Union" ; " To raise and sup- 
port armies" (Sec. 12); "To provide for organizing 
armies and disciplining the Militia and for organizing 
such part of them as may be employed in the service 
of the United States" (Sec. 16.); "To exercise 
exclusive authority over all places purchased for the 
erection of forts, magazines and arsenals" (Sec. 17.); 
" To exercise the exclusive and needful power of 
declaring war" (Sec. 11.) and" To make all laws 
necessary and proper for carrying into execution the 
foregoing powers" (Sec. 18.)- This power seems so 
complete that all other constitutional declarations thereon 
must, of necessity, be by way of limitation or. definition 
and so it will be found to be. 

These statesmen, fresh from the perils of 1776-83, 
grasped the whole power and claimed it for the 
nearest representatives of the people — the Congress. 
It was not to be an appenage of executive authority ; 



THE MILITARY. 505 

it was not to be an adjunct of a judiciary unused, 
by its genius and traditions, to the sword ; too many 
examples of the folly and weakness of such unions 
were fresh in the minds of the Historians of the 
Convention. It was to be under the control of the 
Legislature. The whole military power of the people 
was thus placed in the hands of the Congress and 
but two reservations are to be found in the original 
Constitution ; they are rather regulations, however, 
than restrictions. The first, and by far the most 
important, is that contained in Section 12. It is a 
fine illustration of the proper jealousy of freemen of 
their own chosen and nearest instrumentalities and 
declares that no appropriations of money for the Army 
shall be for a longer period than two years. Else- 
where it was declared that no monies should be paid, 
for any purpose, from the Treasury other than in. 
pursuance of lawful appropriations ; so that thus the 
control of the people over their own military force 
is assured ; the military chest and alt that depends, 
thereon — rations, pay, quarters and arms — are subject to 
abandonment in the biennial elections ; the power to 
annihilate the armies rests in the popular vote, so 
that above and beyond the Congress the vast reserve 
force of a nation of freemen is the final controller of 
their soldiers. No way is open past that final barrier- 
but the path of Revolution. The army must serve,, 
it cannot oppress, the Democracy. The severest: 
martinet may fret and scold about demagogy and 
3° 



506 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC TARTY. 

declare that no voice should be heard in camps but 
that of discipline ; imperious chiefs, should, such arise, 
may affect to ignore any but "superior" authority and 
look to, and through, the War office for all their 
orders ; but the greatest, and the meanest soldier, alike, 
comprehend that the People are the Commander-in- 
Chief of every squadron and that the crowded camp 
and distant outpost alike depend upon the favorable 
judgment of the electors of the land. The other 
reservation is more apparently in form than in substance 
and reserves to the states the appointment of Officers 
and the authority of training the Militia according to 
the discipline prescribed by Congress. But while the 
oath of the soldier is to the United States and its 
Government ; while the Regular Army continues to 
furnish, as it heretofore has done, the seniors of the 
service and the superiors as well in the technique of 
arms ; while the pay and support are wholly furnish- 
ed by the United States in times of war ; while it 
continues the fountain of rewards and its service is 
that of glory, the nomination of the officers of the 
field and line is of minor importance. In the direful 
event of attempted usurpation, it is true that the 
States could call upon their soldiery to disband and, 
by withdrawing the appointments of officers, would 
leave the army a lawless mass ; yet this, too, is the 
contingency of revolution and we are considering now 
only the lawful control and relations of the Military, 
not unlawful and possible patricidal acts — dangers so 



THE MILITARY. S°7 

remote as not to threaten the Republic while it shall 
be worthy of preservation. 

Under these broad grants, and subject to these con- 
ditions, the Military force was organized. The question 
was, " In whose control should be its operations ?" 
The very genius of war is that it shall be concentrated 
power delivered with undivided will at and upon the 
enemy, and their own discussions probably convinced 
the men of the Constitution that a single responsible 
officer must wield their force. A Military Committee, 
the wisest in the world — call it Committee, Counsel or 
Directory — cannot direct military power. Division of 
opinions, inseparable from counsels, weakens action, 
breeds jealousies, coldness, rivalries, contests — even the 
Triumvirate divided the world into battle sections, 
assigning his third to each and making each imperial 
therein, before they overthrew the republic and parted 
its garments among their thievish legions. For military 
success there must be unity, and so the power, as above 
created and restricted, was confided, for use, to the 
Executive. 

Considering the vastness of the power which, from 
the time of the adoption of the Constitution, has been 
exercised by the President in military affairs, it is 
surprising to recall how few and simple are the direct 
grants of authority to him. Article 2d contains them 
all, and they are as follows : 

"The executive power shall be vested in a President 
of the United States of America." (Sec, I.) 



508 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

"The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of the 

Army and Navy of the United States, and of the 

Military of the several States when called into the 
actual service of the United States." (Sec. 2.) 

"He shall take care that the laws be faithfully exe- 
cuted and shall commission all officers of the United 
States." (Sec. 3.) 

This is all of his Constitutional power. Custom, 
drawn largely from Monarchial Sovereignties, and followed 
in earlier times from the necessities of the situation 
and the full faith of a generous people in their chosen 
servants — custom, I say, has given more scope to these 
declarations than they themselves possess. But should 
occasion demand, it would speedily appear that the 
road of the Executive is but a very straight and 
narrow pathway in dealing with the Military. 

He may reprieve or pardon a soldier condemned in 
due course of law; he cannot condemn. He cannot 
augment by one man the forces of the United States ! 
He cannot add a regiment or a ship ; not a dollar of 
pay, perquisite or emolument. He can nominate for 
promotion and, within limits, designate for command. 
He cannot reward illustrious bravery, nor great heroism, 
nor patriotic endurance. He may tender thanks ; he 
may suggest reward; he may call the attention of the 
law-makers to the worthy, and with splendid and 
mellifluous proclamations voice the popular gratitude 
and formulate its acclaim, but not more. 

For convenience he is allowed to perform many 
things pertaining in strictness to the Congress and 



THE MILITARY. .509 

subject to the assertion of its right by that great 
body. His is a case of permitted power, if such an 
expression may be used. The Congress has delegated 
to him much of the power reserved to it by the 
Constitution in matters of routine, and by law has laid 
on him many of the details of service, but the de- 
termination of the Congress to re-assume its full 
authority would find no efficient check. 

It is true that the title of Commander-in-Chief seems 
ample, and so it is. But it is limited by all parts 
of the instrument wherein it is employed, and in this 
sense the President is, himself, subject to the control 
of Congress in all save the routine of the duties of 
his military office, if not indeed in them. The power 
of the government of the army includes the control 
of all parts of the army, the commander included. It 
would be hard for a lawyer to say that the General 
of the armies was within the control of the National 
Legislature, but that the Commander-in-Chief was not, 
while the same section of the Constitution gives the 
control and none limit or change it. The truth is, it 
seems to me, that the Constitution never was designed 
by the people, in their enactment of it, to surrender 
the Congressional control of the Army and Navy of 
the United States and the Militia in service. 

If the occasion should arise when a false President 
should assume independence of the Congress in dealing 
with the army in those great essential matters for 
which the people care and in which they have an in- 



510 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

terest, there would be difficulty, perhaps, in formulating 
the Congressional will ; but that difficulty would 
speedily find adjustment. 

The grasp of Congress upon the sword would be 
found as firm as that they hold upon the purse. Every 
existing regulation could be changed by a constitutional 
majority of both houses. Every function of the Com- 
mander-in-Chief could be changed except that the 
nominal headship would remain as prescribed in the 
letter of the fundamental law. The veto itself would 
become a temporary obstruction in the face of a 
patriotic and determined vote. 

This, then, was the solution at which the Fathers 
arrived and which the people enacted. The military 
power was lodged in the Congress and they were to 
require its exercise by their laws, and in their chosen 
methods by the President. Thus the entire power of 
the great Republic was retained by the electors of 
that Republic and the hand that, for the sake of unity 
and great results, had the sword placed within its 
grasp was bound by law in unyielding fashion to 
execute duly the law. 

In this conclusion I have taken into account those 
things which were inhibited to the States and those 
reserved to them. Concerning one of these reserva- 
tions, the right to commission officers and instruct 
the Militia, I have above written. Another is to 
refuse to grant places for forts, magazines and 
arsenals to the General Government. When once 



THE MILITARY. 5 1 1 

granted, however, State control is gone, the nation 
becomes supreme over the ceded territory and State 
interest cannot, save by National consent, be reas- 
serted. As the Government has now all requisite 
reservations in the present States, and as it holds all 
desired places in the Territories, when they become 
States and as the general interest of the States and 
Union is one, save in the case of a rebellion and in 
the event of the suspension of all civil law, this res- 
ervation is also one rather of form than of sub- 
stance. It was of greater seeming importance when 
the Constitution was submitted; for the minds of men 
were uncertain in their judgment of the new condi- 
tions, and the new order, and those who foresaw 
peril in a great central power were prepared to insist 
that it should not acquire foothold near their hearths, 
save by their permission. Yet another inhibition was 
deemed necessary to clearly eliminate State control of 
the militia arm, and to emphasize the ascendency of 
the new government, and it is found in the last 
section of the first article (Clauses I and 3 of Sec. 10). 

"No State shall enter into any treaty alliance, or 
confederation and no State shall, without the consent 
of Congress, keep troops or ships of war in time of 
peace, enter into any agreement or compact with 
another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in 
war unless actually invaded, or in such imminent 
danger as will not admit of delay." 

In face of these positive inhibitions, the reserved 
right of officering and training the Militia, according 



512 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

to the Discipline prescribed by Congress, surely meant 
that the States might prepare the thunderbolts, but 
that Congress alone should hurl them. They intensify 
the expressions of Federal power over the Army. 
They leave but one Military power in lawful existence 
within the confines of the Republic, and, even in the 
event of a sudden invasion, leave the control of the 
Militia with the Congress, if that body shall choose 
to call the State levies into the National service of 
the United States and thus assume the defence of the 
invaded State. Nor is this position changed by the 
second and third articles of the amendments, which 
declare the right of the people to bear arms and 
which protect the people from the indiscriminate 
billetings of troops. 

The Constitutional system of Military Law is simple, 
as becomes a great charter of Liberty, and its terms 
can be comprehended of all men. It is all-embracing 
as the law of National existence requires. It has been 
widely departed from in troublous times but it is 
supreme today. And in its security the citizen, un- 
touched by the point of the sword and willingly 
bearing his share of military burdens, sees our little 
army do its ordered work, conscious that, at the call 
of the law — his law — its ranks, swelled to unnumbered 
myriads, can uphold that law, and never threaten his 
Liberty. 




HILARY A. HERBERT. 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE NAVY. 



Hon Hilary A Herbert, 
Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, National 
House of Representatives. 



I. — The Navy of the Revolution. 

''PHE first blood of the Revolution was shed on the 
19th of April, 1775. News travelled slowly at that 
day, but by the 1 ith of May, the sound of the cannon fired 
on Lexington Green had reached Machias, Maine. Im- 
mediately four gallant soldiers seized upon a sloop, 
called for volunteers to attack an armed English 
Schooner, the Margaretta, lying hard by, and in a 
few minutes thirty-five adventurous men had volunteered. 
They elected one of their number, Mr. O'Brien, to 
command and, badly armed as they were, they cap- 
tured the schooner, though it was better armed and 
better manned, after a bloody struggle. Twenty men on 
the two sides were killed and wounded. This was the 
first naval engagement of the Revolution — an impromptu 
battle, born of the spirit of liberty and the result was an 
omen of the glorious future that awaited American seamen. 
Congress soon began to commission privateers, 

(5i5) 



516 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

to build ships and organize a marine and, before the 
close of 1775, had authorized 17 cruisers, commissioned 
officers to command them and appointed "Esec Hopkins 
Esquire. Commander-in-chief. ,, 

Thus the Continental Navy was born more than 
six months before the Declaration of Independence. 

In October, 1776, the new Government had, 
building and built, 26 vessels, though many of them 
never got to sea. Several of the colonies had besides 
vessels of their own and such was the activity of 
American cruisers that in 1776 their captures amounted 
it is said, to 324 sail. Many disasters, of course, 
befell the Americans themselves. It could not be 
otherwise for they were fighting the greatest naval 
power in the world, but so successful were they that 
the supplies and munitions that fell into their hands 
proved invaluable to the colonies in their struggle 
for independence. 

1777 was an eventful year. The Randolph, 32 
guns, after a cruise full of brave and successful ven- 
tures was blown up with the gallant Capt. Biddle, 
and all on board, in an engagement with the British 
Ship Yarmouth. 

The brig Cabot, the Hancock, 32 guns, and many 
merchant and other American vessels, were captured or de- 
stroyed. The colonies, feeble as they were, could ill 
afford such losses, but the gallant little marine came 
out of every struggle with untarnished honor, and their 
huge antagonist, whose shipping covered the seas, suf- 



THE NAVY. 517 

fered still more severely than the colonies. Not only 
did the English lose, as it is estimated, during this 
year, 467 sail of merchantmen, but their vessels of 
war, though there were seventy of them on the 
American coast, were in several instances defeated by 
their enterprising foes. It was in this year, 1777, 
that Congress adopted our national colors. 

The year 1778 opened with cheering prospects 
for the cause of Independence. Burgoyne had sur- 
rendered during the previous year. France, it was 
seen, was soon to ally herself with America; Congress 
was addressing itself more earnestly to the work of 
strengthening the Navy and patriots everywhere took 
heart. Capt. Rathburne with a sloop of 12 guns and 
less than thirty men made a sudden descent upon 
the British at New Providence, seized the forts and 
stores and captured six vessels, one of them a priva- 
teer with 16 guns and fifty men. Captain John Barry 
by a brilliant dash with four row boats captured, in 
the Delaware River, a British Schooner of ten guns 
and four transports. Capt. John Paul Jones in the 
Ranger, after a brave struggle, captured the Drake, 
his superior in tonnage, men and metal. Capt. Waters, 
in the ship Thorn, 16, fought, at the same time, the 
Governor Tryon, 16, and the Sir William Erskine, 14. 
The Tryon surrendered to the American and the 
Erskine saved itself by flight. 

The colonies had their losses too, though we have 
no space here to record all the victories or reverses 



5 I 8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

of the American sailor during that memorable year. 
It is sufficient to say that the gallant little • navy 
wrote another bright page in that glorious record upon 
which this generation looks back, through the vista 
of a hundred years, with so much of affectionate 
admiration. 

IJJ9 Till the Close of The Revolution. 
The reputation achieved £>y our navy, if such it 
could be called, during the first four eventful years 
of the Revolution was fully maintained till the close 
of the struggle. Without any attempt to follow the 
current of history, for we have no time to go into 
particulars, let the fight between the Eon Homme 
Richard and the British Ship Serapis stand for an 
illustration of the spirit of the American mariner in 
the days of the Revolution. Each vessel mounted 42 
guns, but the Englishman was a regular man-of-war 
while the Richard was an old Indiaman converted into 
a war vessel. The English vessel had 42 heavy guns 
while the American was armed partly with nine and 
twelve pounders. Indeed, after the first broadside, the 
Richard had nothing else to fight with, for the sailors 
refused to serve the remaining 18 pounders when two 
of them had bursted. The heavy broadsides of the 
Serapis were terribly destructive. The gunners on the 
Richard were mowed down like hay. The living leaped 
promptly forward but could not always supply the 
place of the dead. There was a mometary lull in the 
combat on the side of the Richard and Captain 



THE NAVY. 519 

Pierson, of the Serapis, not being able to see trie 
American flag, for the battle was by moonlight, called 
out, "Have you struck your colors?" "No" answered 
the gallant Paul Jones, "I have not yet begun to fight." 
Commodore Jones now saw his only chance was yard arm 
to yard arm. Fortune and a skilful maneuvre favored 
him, so he closed with his enemy and lashed her 
head-gear to his mizzenmast. The Englishman was 
unable to disengage himself and now the battle was 
to be fought out almost hand to hand. For two 
hours more the terrible combat waged. The heavy 
guns of the Serapis swept through the Richard till 
men could not live on its lower deck. They shot 
the ship till their missies passed through without 
touching a splinter. The Richard was on fire, and 
water, at the same time, was pouri'ng into her hold. 
But the Americans from the upper deck and rigging 
of their vessel rained shot and shell and hand-grenades 
upon their enemy until they controlled both upper 
decks as the English did the lower. A sailor from 
the end of the main-yard of the Richard now threw 
a grenade down through the main hatchway of the 
Serapis and caused such an explosion of ammunition 
as almost to decide the battle. Fifty or sixty English- 
men were killed and wounded but they gallantly 
fought on. For half an hour longer the dreadful strug- 
gle went on and all this time the Americans were 
fighting not only their human foes but in addition 
thereto the fire and water. The Serapis too was 



520 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

often on fire. At last, when the English were 
exhausted and could fight no longer, Captain Pierson 
with his own hands pulled down his flag. The Sera- 
pis was captured, but the Richard had fought its last 
fight. It was not till ten o'clock next day that the 
fire in her sides could be extinguished. For nearly 
twenty-four hours longer her crew worked at the pumps. 
When there was no hope of saving her she was 
abandoned and the waters on which she had floated 
so bravely closed over the Bon Homme Richard for- 
ever. The victors had taken refuge in the captured 
vessel. These two ships, though each had consorts, 
fought out this battle single-handed, the Richard being 
more injured by her ally's fire than was the Serapis. 
The losses were about 150 each — say half of those 
engaged on either side. History records no more 
memorable combat between single ships unless it be 
that between the Monitor and the Marrimac, of Vir 
ginia, and there Americans were on both sides. 
The Peace of 1783. 
Independence found the government of the United 
States without money or the means of procuring it, 
for it had no power to levy taxes. Of course what 
was left of the little navy that had won so much 
glory went to pieces. The Dey of Algiers was, at 
that time, preying on the commerce of the world like 
a common buccaneer. It goes without saying that he 
did not pass by the merchantmen of a country that 
was too feeble to protect them. Instead of investing 



THE NAVY. 521 

in a navy our ancestors for a time, we regret to say, 
sought to buy their peace by tribute. Even after the 
adoption of our present Constitution, Americans who 
had been captured by the Algerines were, for years, 
allowed to remain in captivity and slavery ; but by 
March, 1794, the Congress had become sufficiently 
aroused to authorize, as it did on the 27th of that 
month, the construction of six frigates. Under this 
law President Washington caused to be laid down 
those ships whose names have passed into history — the 
Constitution, 44 guns, the President, 44, the United 
States 44, the Chesapeake 38, the Constellation 38, 
and the Congress 38. This was the beginning of our 
Navy. Work on all these vessels was immediately 
begun but, as to three of them, was suspended when, 
by a treaty in November, 1795, the United States 
again bargained for her peace with Algiers, this time 
by contributions amounting to one million dollars. It 
is passing strange that our ancestors who had not 
feared to confront even Great Britain should consent 
to pay a yearly tribute to so weak a power as 
Algiers. Perhaps they did not consider it humiliating 
to bargain with the Dey because he was a barbarian 
and could not be expected to act like a Christian. 
It was on this principle that Dogberry instructed the 
watch who were to " Comprehend all vagrant men. 
If any, after being bid in the prince's name to stand 
should refuse to do so, why then, let him go and 
thank God you are rid of a knave." 



522 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

The Quasi War zvith France. 
It was now 1798 and France and England were at 
war. Both sides desired, and France expected and 
demanded, the aid of America. Our government de- 
termined to remain neutral but both belligerents 
gradually encroached upon our commerce until at 
length the French made prizes of our merchantmen 
whenever it pleased them. So on the 27th of April, 
1798, $950,000 was appropriated to increase the navy, 
and on the 30th of the same month the Navy De- 
partment was created. In June, Benjamin Stoddard 
became the first Secretary. July 10th, 1798, the new 
Marine Corps was created consisting of 881 officers 
and enlisted men headed by a major. On July 16th a 
law was passed authorizing the completion of the 
three frigates, work on which had been suspended, so 
that the American Navy, as now authorized by law, 
consisted of twelve frigates, twelve ships of between 
20 and 24 guns inclusive and six smaller sloops; making 
a total of thirty cruisers besides revenue cutters and 
galleys. In the next year, 1799, the government had 
in actual service twenty-eight ships of war. Govern- 
ment had now use for all these vessels for the sea 
was swarming with French privateers, aided by men- 
of-war. On the 9th of February, 1799, the Constella- 
tion, Commodore Truxton, fell in with and captured, 
after a spirited resistance, the French frigate Insur- 
gente. The French lost seventy killed and wounded, 
the Americans three. On the 1st of February, 1800, 



THE NAVY. 523 

the same officer, with his good ship Constellation, en- 
countered La Vengeance, which was his superior in 
guns and men. A bloody battle ensued and the 
Frenchman, badly crippled, escaped with a loss of 160 
killed and wounded. The Constellation had lost only 
thirty-nine but could not follow for her mainmast was 
shot away. Congress voted a gold medal to Commo- 
dore Truxton and commended, by resolution, his gallant 
lieutenant, Mr. Harvey. Besides some unarmed mer- 
chant vessels, more than fifty French privateers were 
captured and brought into port during the years 1798, 
1799 and 1800 and many deeds of gallantry were done. 
Peace was made with France February 3d, 1801. 
War with Tripoli — 180 i-j. 

On the 14th of May, 1801, the Bashaw of Tripoli 
declared war against the United States because, as he 
alleged, the tribute he had received from us for keep- 
ing the peace was not as much as we were paying 
Algiers and Tunis on similar account. This learned 
Sovereign, like other great equity judges, laid stress on 
the maxim, "equality is equity." 

The war. began in earnest in August and lasted for 
four years. Among its principle incidents were the loss, 
on a reef, of the United States frigate Philadelphia ; 
its capture by the enemy ; its re-capture and des- 
truction in a gallant night attack by Lieutenant De- 
catur — afterwards the celebrated Commodore ; and the 
awful loss of the United States ketch, Intrepid, a 
vessel that commanded by Captain Somers and Lieu- 
31 



524 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

tenant Wadsworth and heavily freighted with powder 
and shell, sailed away in the darkness of the night 
towards the enemy's fleet and forts and, before she 
had been turned adrift, exploded with all on board. 

The progress of the war was marked by many deeds 
of gallantry ; but the blockades, the bombardments and 
the combats by land and sea were all ended by the 
peace of June 3rd, 1805. Preble, Morris, Rodgers, 
Decatur and others had won brilliant reputations, and 
our little navy was left with an esprit du corps that 
was gratifying to every lover of his country. 
From 180 1 to 18 12, 

From the very close of the war with Tripoli, our 
relations with England were in a troubled condition. 
June 2 1st,- 1807, the Captain of the British ship, 
Leopard, (50) made an unexpected demand to search 
the United States frigate Chesapeake, (38) for de- 
serters and being refused he poured his broadsides for 
twelve minutes into the American vessel, killing and 
wounding twenty-one. The American Commander, Com- 
modore Barron, not having anticipated such a con- 
tingency and not having his ship in condition for 
battle, surrendered and submitted to the search. Angry 
correspondence between the British and American 
governments followed, but no open rupture. In De- 
cember following, Congress increased the number of 
Gunboats to 257 and also laid an embargo on all our 
ports. In January, 1809, President Madison was directed 
to equip the United States, the Essex, the President 



THE NAVY. 525 

and the John Adams, and to increase the number of 
midshipmen to 450 and of seamen and boys to 5,025, 
so that, when the laws were carried into execution, the 
total number in the naval service, including marines, 
was 7,000. 

On the 16th of May, 181 1, about 8 o'clock at night, 
occurred the affair of the American frigate President 
(44 guns) and the English ship Little Belt (18 guns), 
in which the latter had thirty-one killed and wounded. 
It was a regular battle for twenty minutes apparently 
growing out of the failure of the Little Belt to respond 
when hailed. If it was the result of a misunderstand- 
ing it was such a mistake as could only have occurred 
where feelings of intense hostility already existed. 
The war of 18 12 was rapidly coming on. 
War of 18 1 2. 

Congress made an open declaration of hostilities 
June 12, 181 2. Our Navy consisted of the President 
44; the Constitution, 44; the United States, 44 
Congress, 38; Constellation, 38; Chesapeake, 38 
New York, 38 — a sheer hulk ; Essex, 32 ; Adams, 28 
John Adams, 28 ; Boston, 28 ; General Greene, 28 
Wasp, 18; Hornet, 18; Argus, 16; Siren, 16; Naut- 
ilus, 12; Vixen, 12; Enterprise, 14; Viper, 10; ketch 
Spitfire, 3; bomb-brig Vengeance, 3; Vesuvius, n; 
and brig Oneida, on Lake Ontario. Great Britian, at 
that time, was absolute mistress of the seas. The 
Battle of Trafalgar, in 1805, had left her without any 
rival among European Nations. Her naval strength 



526 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

since that date had steadily increased. She now had 
1060 ships of war. Between seven and eight hundred 
of these were effective cruisers. If America was to 
win any battles in the coming war, to all appear- 
ances, they must be fought on land. Cooper, in his 
History of the Navy, says, that, at one time President 
Madison's Cabinet had decided that our ships of war, 
in order to prevent them from falling into the enemy's 
hands, must be withdrawn from the seas and laid up 
in ordinary ; and that the President was only dissuaded 
from this course by Captains Stewart and Bainbridge 
of the Navy. 

In a glass case in the Library of the State Depart- 
ment at Washington is a beautiful silver urn with 
this inscription upon it, " The Citizens of Philadelphia, 
at a meeting convened on the fifth of September, 18 12, 
voted this urn to be presented in their name to 
Captain Isaac Hull, Commander of the United States 
Frigate Constitution as a testimonial of their sense 
of his distinguished gallantry and conduct in bringing 
to action and subduing the British Frigate Gurriere, 
on the 19th day of August, 18 1 2, and of the eminent 
service he has rendered to his country by achieving, 
in the first naval conflict of the war, a most signal 
and decisive victory over a foe that had, till then, 
challenged unrivaled superiority on the ocean, and 
thus establishing the claims of our Navy to the affec- 
tion and confidence of the Nation." 

This tells almost the whole story of the war. It 



THE NAVY. 527 

bespeaks the grateful surprise with which our country- 
men heard of the first victory we won on sea over 
that great nation whose actual power on the ocean 
was so overwhelming and whose prestige was indisputable. 

Except the great victory at New Orleans, which 
occured after the Treaty of Peace had been signed, 
though before it was known to the troops, there is 
not much of the part of the war of 18 12 that was 
waged on land that the American citizen cares greatly 
to hear of, but the victories we won at sea were 
very remarkable indeed. 

In the fight between the Constitution and the 
Guerriere the Americans lost 14 killed and wounded 
and the Englishman 79. 

On the 1 2th of October, 18 12, the United States, 
44, Commodore Decatur with a loss of 12 killed, and 
wounded, captured the Macedonian, 38, inflicting a loss 
of 104 killed and wounded. The United States vessel 
Wasp, 18, defeated the Frolic, 18, with a loss to the 
victor of only ten and a loss to the Frolic of seventy 
or eighty. December 29th, 18 12, the Constitution, 44, 
captured the Java, 38. The Java lost 124 killed and 
wounded, the Constitution 36. February 24th, 1813, 
the United States Hornet, 18, Captain Lawrence., 
captured and sank the Peacock, 18. The Hornet lost 
3, and the Peacock 38, killed and wounded. 

On the 10th of September, 18 13, on Lake Erie, 
occured the great battle between the two little impro- 
vised fleets, which were equal in men and metal, the 



528 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Americans under Captain Perry and the English under 
Captain Barclay. Losses were just equal, 135 each, 
and the courage of the combatants seemed fairly bal- 
anced but the seamanship and victory were with the 
American and Perry was left master of the Lake. 

On the nth of September, 18 14, at the battle of 
Plattsburg, Captain McDonough, with 14 vessels, 86 
guns and 850 men, after a terrible combat, beat the 
English Captain Downie, with 16 vessels, 96 guns and 
1,000 men ; and thus the Americans were left in 
complete possession of Lake Champlain. 

In some of the conflicts that occurred during the 
war of 18 f2 we were overmatched, occasionally we 
were beaten when conditions were equal, but when 
the chances were even victory was oftenest with the 
Americans and there was no single combat upon the 
water, unless perchance in case of the surrender of 
the Argus to the Pelican, out of which our flag did 
not come with untarnished honor. 

Roosevelt, in his able and apparently accurate his- 
tory of the Naval War of 18 12, after offsetting the 
losses of Revenue-cutters against British Royal Packets, 
tenders, barges etc., sums up the losses of the two 
sides in the war of 18 12, as follows: 

AMERICAN LOSS. BRITISH LOSS. 

CAUSED. TONNAGE. GUNS. TONNAGE. GUNS. 

By Ocean Cruiser.. 5,984 278 8,451 351 

On the Lakes 727 37 4>i59 212 

By the army 3,007 116 500 22 

By Privateers ^ . . . 402 20 

Total 9,718 431 13, 512 605 



THE NAVY. 529 

When we consider the large amount of our loss 
inflicted by the British Army the disparity in the 
losses suffered from naval operations becomes very 
great and such a result, considering the disparity of 
force, is certainly very remarkable. 

Roosevelt further says, " Of the twelve single ship 
actions, two (those of the Argus and the Chesapeake) 
undoubtedly redounded most to the credit of the 
British, in two (that of the Wasp with the Reindeer 
and that of the Enterprise and the Boxer) the honors 
were nearly even, and in the other eight the super- 
iority of the Americans was very manifest. 

(Note 1. — Not counting the last action of the 
Constitution, or the President's action on the capture 
of the Essex, on account of the difficulty of fairly 
e-stimating the amount of credit due each side.) In 
three actions (those with the Penguin, Frolic and 
Shannon) the combatants were about equal in strength, 
the Americans having slightly the advantage ; in all 
the others but two, the victors combined superiority of 
force with superiority of skill. 

In these remarkable combats, where we were fighting 
men of our own blood with prestige, at the beginning 
of the war at least, all against us, much of our suc- 
cess was due to the superior make and armament of 
our ships. They had wisely been devised to be each 
a little better than other ships of its class. This is 
a lesson which, as will be seen, is not lost on the 
present administration. (1888). 



530 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Hull, Decatur, McDonough, Perry, Bainbridge, Law- 
rence, Porter and other gallant officers, and the com- 
mon sailors as well, achieved for themselves and the 
American Navy, in that memorable war, a reputation 
which our people will always remember with pride and 
affection. 

The war of 1812 practically settled the question of 
the right of search. Though it was not mentioned in 
the treaty of peace, Great Britain has never since 
attempted to exercise it. 

The Last of the Troubles with the Barbary Powers. 

"You told us," said the Dey of Algiers to the 
resident British Consul, June 28th, 18 15, alluding to the 
boast with which England began the war of 18 12, "that 
the Americans would be swept from the seas in six 
months by your navy and now they make war upon 
us with some of our own vessels taken from you." 

There the Americans were, ruling at anchor in the 
Bay of Algiers, and in their fleet were the Guerriere 
and the Macedonian, captured from the British. The 
Guerriere was the Flagship of the fleet and the Com- 
modore commanding was that same Stephen F. De- 
catur who, as a Lieutenant-Commandant, had so greatly 
distinguished himself by the capture and destruction of 
the Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli in 1804. The 
Dey, thinking he could do so with impunity, like the 
Dey of Morocco and the Bashaw of Tripoli, had taken 
advantage of the war of 1812 to prey again on 
American commerce. He was now greatly astonished 



THE NAVY. 531 

to find an American fleet had survived that war and 
was at his doors demanding reparation. Its Commander 
had already slain his favorite Admiral in battle, cap- 
tured that Admiral's Flagship, the Mashouda, and now 
insisted that he, the redoubtable Dey, should repair in 
person on board the Guerriere to negotiate a treaty. 

The conditions were very humiliating but the Dey 
felt bound to comply and he released the captives he 
had taken and signed a treaty by which he stipulated 
to accord to America the rights which one civilized 
nation demands of another. 

Decatur next compelled the Dey of Tunis to sign a 
similar treaty and pay $40,000 indemnity ; and then 
the Bashaw of Tripoli to pay $25,000 for his mis- 
conduct as well as bind himself for the future by a 
solemn treaty. 

All this was accomplished within seventy days after 
Decatur had sailed from New York and before a similar 
squadron, under Commodore Bainbridge, had reached the 
Mediterranean. 

America was reaping the first fruits of the prestige 
the Navy had won in the war of 18 12. 

It was not many years after the war 18 12 when the 
heart of the country was saddened by the death of 
two of its favorite heroes. Commodore Perry died, at 
the early age of 34, of Yellow Fever in the waters 
of South America, August 23, 18 19 ; and Commodore 
Decatur fell in a duel, at the hands of Commodore 
Barron, at Bladensburg, near Washington, March 22d, 



532 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

1820. It illustrates how common the practice of 
duelling formerly was in our navy, when we find that 
in Cooper's list of Naval officers retained when the 
navy was re-organized in 1 801, only nine are set 
down as having lost their lives in battle during the 
war with Tripoli and Great Britain, while as many as 
five were killed in duels. 

Our Ships built and Naval Policy formulated 
by Democrats. 

The close of the war of 18 12 left the Democratic, 
or Republican party as it was then called, in full 
power in the Government and so it continued for 
many years. This party had now so little opposition 
that Monroe's eight years administration, which began 
March 4, 1 817, is known as the era of good feeling. 

When the war of 18 12 had fairly closed and Demo- 
cratic statesmen had opportunity for deliberation, they 
soon formulated and passed an act, April 20th, 18 16, 
appropriating $1,000,000 per annum for eight years to 
the increase of the navy. 

This was approved by President Madison. Five years 
afterwards, March 3d, 182 1, the expenditure of the 
three millions of this sum not yet paid out was ex- 
tended over a period of six years, at the rate of 
$500,000 per annum. 

This appropriation, in 1 8 16, of $1,000,000 pel annum 
for wooden ships and cast iron guns, while our popu- 
lation was about 8,500,000, seems to be a very great 
sum when we remember how economical our fathers 



THE NAVY. 533 

were. But they were great statesmen. Recognizing 
the necessity of a navy they economized elsewhere. 

They built up the navy, paid off the war debt, and 
at the same time retrenched expenditures until, in 1823, 
the whole expense of the government amounted to 
only $15,314,171.00. 

Under the acts of 18 16 and 1821 were built the 
five 74's — Columbus, Ohio, North Carolina and Vermont ; 
the four 44's — Potomac, Savannah, Raritan, Santee ; the 
Fulton, 9 ; the Pennsylvania, 120 ; and the six 44^ — 
Brandywine, Sabine, Columbia, Cumberland, St. Law- 
rence and Congress. Various acts for the increase of 
the navy were passed in 1822, 1825, 1826, 183 1, 1834, 
1836, 1837, 1839, 1840, but the next great increase 
was made by the act of March 3rd, 1841 appropriating 
$2,000,000 for purchasing or building steam vessels. 
This also was signed by a Democratic .President, 
Martin Van Buren. Under this act, supplemented, 
however, by $2,000,000 more appropriated by act of 
August 4th, 1842, signed this time by Tyler, were 
built the seven 12-gun sloops, Saratoga, Portsmouth, 
Plymouth, St. Mary's, Jamestown, Albany and German- 
town ; the five 10-gun brigs, Bainbridge, Somers, 
Truxton, Perry, and Lawrence; the Michigan and 
Massachusetts. The next important act was passed 
March 3d, 1847. It was approved by that typical 
Democrat, James K. Polk, who, in his message, De- 
cember 2, 1846, had formulated the then Democratic 
theory of the navy, thus : 



534 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

"It has never been our policy to maintain large standing armies in time 
of peace. They are contrary to the genius of our free institutions, would 
impose heavy burdens on the people, and be dangerous to public liberty. 
Our reliance for protection and defense on the land must be mainly on our 
citizen-soldiers, who will be ever ready, as they have ever been ready in 
times past, to rush with alacrity at the call of their country to her defense. 
This description of force, however, can not defend our coasts, harbors, and 
inland seas, nor protect our commerce on the ocean or the lakes. These 
must be protected by our navy. Considering an increased naval force, and 
especially of steam vessels, corresponding with our growth and importance 
as a nation, and proportioned to the increased and increasing naval power 
of other nations, of vast importance as regards our safety and the great and 
growing interests to be protected by it, I recommend the subject to the 
favorable consideration of Congress.' 

Under this act of 1847 were built the four first- 
class steamships, Susquehanna, Powhatan, Saranac and 
San Jacinto. The Brooklyn, Lancaster, Hartford, Pen- 
sacola and Richmond were built under the act of 
March 3rd, 1857, signed by Pierce, who had, on the 
6th of April, 1854, also signed the act under which 
were constructed the celebrated six frigates, the Mer- 
rimac, Minnesota, Wabash, Roanoke, Colorado, and 
Niagara. These vessels were unsurpassed in the world 
and were, until iron ships came in, the pride of our 
navy. 

Thus it will be seen that, in the period preceding 
our civil war, it was the Democratic party that had 
built most of our ships. 

It was the same party that had used them to carry 
out its vigorous foreign policy. A Democratic Congress 
declared the war of 18 12 and the war with Mexico; 
and in the latter war the navy not only aided in the 
bombardment of Vera Cruz, and in the other opera- 



THE NAVY. 535 

tions on the eastern shores of the enemy's country, 
but, under Commodores Sloat, Stockton and Shubrick, 
aided by Lieutenant-Colonel Fremont and General 
Kearney, made a complete conquest of all that portion 
of Mexican territory which now comprises the State 
of California and held it till ceded to the United 
States by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. The 
forces under Fremont and Kearney, though efficient, 
were few in numbers and the credit of the conquest 
is chiefly due to the navy. 

A Democratic President, Franklin Pierce, adopted and 
defended the act of Lieutenant Commander Ingraham, 
who, in the port of Smyrna, in 1853, cleared for 
action the Americen ship, St. Louis, and, in the 
presence of an Austrian marine force twice his own, 
compelled the Austrian Commander to surrender Martin 
Koszta. Koszta had been a subject of Austria, a 
political offender, and had escaped to America, where 
he had renounced his former allegiance and taken the 
oath of allegiance to the United States. In Smyrna, 
a Turkish port, he had been kidnapped and carried 
on board an Austrian vessel that lay in the Harbor. 

A long correspondence between the authorities of 
Austria and the United States followed. Austria finally 
acquiesced, and thus the doctrine was firmly established, 
that one who has taken the first step to become a 
citizen of the United States is entitled to the protec- 
tion of the flag. 



536 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

The Civil War. 

Our civil war was, in many respects, the most re- 
markable conflict in the history of the world. When 
it began, the progress we had made in the arts of 
peace had been so wonderful and our increase in 
wealth so rapid, that other people were disposed to 
look upon us simply as a nation of " dollar hunters." 
We were somewhat inclined to regard ourselves in 
that same light, and so the results which followed 
astounded, not only the rest of the world, but the 
American people as well. The armies put in the field 
outnumbered any since the days of Xerxes, and history 
now regards their numbers as fabulous ; the carnage in 
battle was greater than in any war of which we have 
trustworthy accounts ; and the courage and persistence 
displayed on both the Union and Confederate sides 
has never been surpassed. 

The great numbers of those engaged on land and 
the magnitude of the battles they fought, have here- 
tofore so riveted attention, that the American public 
is not even now fully aware of the splendor and im- 
portance of the naval operations during the memorable 
period from 1861 to 1865. 

It is true that the Confederates were almost entirely 
without naval resources, but the task set for the Union 
was nevertheless a great one. The Mississippi river 
was to be opened so as to cut the Confederacy in 
two. Its mouth was closed by forts deemed by the 
best engineers of that day as amply sufficient to 



THE NAVY. 537 

protect it. Batteries at Vicksburg, Port Hudson, 
Island No. 10 and other places closed it above ; a 
coast, 5,000 miles in extent, was to be blockaded so 
as to starve the Confederacy by shutting" it off from 
the outside world — its principal posts were defended 
by forts leisurely erected after most careful calculation 
in time of peace ; and it was a well recognized prin- 
ciple of international law that " Blockade, to be bind- 
ing must be effective — that is to say maintained by a 
force really sufficient to prevent access to the coast 
by the enemy." Not only the Confederacy, but all 
Europe was deeply interested in this question. Inside 
the lines of the proposed blockade was to be found 
in abundance the cotton, for want of which operatives 
in England and France were at starvation point. The 
Confederacy hoped, that driven by the necessities of 
the situation, these two nations at least would be com- 
pelled to recognize its independence and possibly even 
to render material assistance. The French and English 
governments did, in fact, both seem to earnestly desire 
the permanent disruption of the American Union. 
These great powers were jealously to insist on the 
strictest application of the law the navy was called on 
to enforce. 

Great as this task was, it was accomplished ; not all 
at once, for the government was not prepared for such 
a Herculean enterprise, but when the conditions are all 
considered and the courage and ingenuity of the Con- 
federates are taken into account, the eventual achiev- 



538 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ment of this mighty undertaking reflects unbounded 
credit on the brave officers and men of the navy. 
There were never in the Naval Service at any one 
time more than 51,500 men and 7,000 officers and 
this was at the close of the war. 

The number of officers and men in the armies of 
the United States during the war amounted altogether 
to 2,700,000, and the report of the Provost-Marshal- 
General shows that, when hostilities ceased, there were 
1,000,516 soldiers actually under arms. When we con- 
sider the results achieved, the value to the Union of 
what the navy accomplished was out of all proportion 
to this difference between the numbers engaged in the 
two branches of the service. Leaving out of the com- 
putation entirely, every thing else the navy did, the 
damage to the Confederacy resulting from the Blockade 
and the loss of the Mississippi was simply incalculable. 

Not only was the task set before the Navy a great 
one, but there were many 'difficulties in the way of 
its accomplishment. 

The war upon the water could not be properly 
conducted without effective administration at the Navy 
Department. Admiral Porter says with great force in 
his " Naval History of the Civil War:" 

"When the war broke out it was very apparent 
that the organization of the Navy Department was 
very defective and that the system of Bureaux, which 
worked fairly well in time of peace, did not work at 
all in time of war. It was like a balky team ; it 



THE NAVY. 539 

required a professional hand to guide the several 
Bureaux, which seemed to be trying to run their 
Departments, each without regard to the other, with 
no unanimity of opinion." 

Fortunately for the cause of the Union, Mr. Gusta- 
vus V. Fox, who had extended experience both as a 
naval officer and as a business man, was made assist- 
ant Secretary of the Navy. He was admirably, calcu- 
lated to deal with these rival claimants to power in 
the Bureaux, for he was a man of iron will and 
great executive capacity. 

There were in active service in May, 1861, 973 
officers and the complement of men was 7,600. The 
officers who had taken sides with the South and had 
resigned or been dismissed, were 322. 

In 1 86 1 there was no law, providing for the retire- 
ment of officers at a given age. Consequently most 
of the officers of high rank were superannuated. But 
when the war had begun in earnest, way was soon made 
for the promotion of younger officers and the vast 
increase in the Navy resulted in giving important 
commands to many young officers, who had been 
trained at the Naval Academy. This school was 
founded in 1846, fourteen years before the commence- 
ment of the war. The aptness and efficiency, and 
"esprit du corps" of the young men who had received 
their training there, are believed to have amply vindi- 
cated the wisdom of those who founded the Naval 
Academy ; the credit of which is chiefly due to Hon. 

Geo. Bancroft, then Secretary of the Navy. 
32 



540 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

The materiel of the Navy at the beginning- of the 
war consisted of ninety vessels. Of these, sixteen 
sailing vessels and twenty-six steamers were in com- 
mission. Besides these there were eighteen sailing 
vessels and nine steamers not in commission, but 
serviceable and put into commission as soon afterwards 
as possible. There were also twenty-one ships classi- 
fied as unserviceable. Immediately upon the beginning 
of hostilities, the Government began to buy, build and 
have built, vessels adapted as well as might be to the 
exigencies of the occasion, and by the close of the 
war there had been brought into the service 790 
vessels. 

On the other hand Professor Soley in his admir- 
able book, " The Blockade and the Cruisers," says: 

" Great as was the task before the United States 
Government, in preparing for a Naval War, it was as 
nothing to that of the enemy. The latter had at its 
disposal, a small number of trained officers imbued 
with the same ideas, and brought up in the same 
school, as their opponents, Some of these like Bu- 
chanan, Semmes, Brown, Maffit, and Brooke, were men 
of extraordinary professional qualities : but except in 
its officers, the Confederate Government had nothing 
in the shape of a Navy. It had not a single ship 
of war. It had no abundant fleet of merchant ves- 
sels in its ports from which to draw reserves. It had 
no seamen, for its people were not given to seafaring 
pursuits. Its only shipyards were Norfolk, and Pensacola. 



THE NAVY. 541 

Norfolk with its immense supplies of ordnance and 
equipments was indeed invaluable ; but though the 
three hundred new Dahlgren guns captured in the yard 
were a permanent acquisition, the yard itself was 
lost when the war was one fourth over. The South 
was without any large force of skilled mechanics, and 
such as it had were early summoned to the army. 

There were only three rolling mills in the country, 
two of which were in Tennessee ; and the third, at- 
Atlanta, was unfitted for navy work. There were 
hardly any machine shops that were prepared to sup- 
ply the best kind of workmanship ; and in the begin- 
ing the only foundry capable of casting heavy guns 
was the Tredegar Iron Works, which under the direct- 
ion of Commander Brooke, was employed to its full 
capacity; worst of all there were no raw materials, 
except the timber that was standing in the forests. 

The cost of iron was enormous, and towards the 
end of the war it was hardly to be had at any 
price. Under these circumstances, no general plan of 
naval policy on a large scale could be carried out ; 
and the conflict on the Southern side, became a spec- 
ies of partisan, desultory welfare." 

The true American has always been iond of the 
sea. He seems to have inherited from his ancestors, 
who braved the dangers of the ocean to find homes 
on an unknown continent, the spirit of the sailor, and 
almost every page of his history, illustrates it. Free 
institutions, the benefit of which he has always enjoyed, 



542 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

and the vast opportunities for development afforded 
in this roomy Western Continent, seem also to have 
made him unusually self-reliant and to have wonder- 
fully stimulated his inventive faculties. Hence it is, 
that the developments that were to result from four 
years conflict between Americans, were so remarkable, 
that it may be said that out of the struggle, the art, 
had' grown to be the science, of naval warfare. 

Steam had begun to supersede sail-power ; it was 
demonstrated that men-of-war propelled only by sail- 
power, were no longer to be used. The use of rifled 
guns was only fairly beginning : it was proven that 
the days of smooth bore guns, both great and 
small, were gone. Experiments had been made with 
iron as a material for the hull, and as a protection 
to the sides, of vessels ; it was demonstrated that the 
future war vessels were to be made of iron or steel ; 
and torpedoes were used so successfully, especially by 
the Confederates, that all the world has since re- 
garded them as a necessary part of a properly 
equipped navy. 

The limits of a paper like this forbid any effort 
even to enumerate,, much less to describe, the exploits 
of the United States Navy during the memorable four 
years war. The purpose is simply to give some idea 
of the nature and importance of its services. 

Iron clad and unclad gun-boats and transports were 
not only on the Mississippi and the Tennessee and 
Qhi"% but went everywhere a gun-boat could go. The 



THE NAVY. 543 

blockade stretched like a cordon around the coasts of 
the Confederacy, rendering ingress or egress, exceedingly 
difficult. Eleven hundred and forty nine prizes were 
brought in and 365 vessels were burnt or otherwise 
destroyed, making a total of 1504. 

Of all the thirteen Confederate cruisers that had 
been sq adroitly managed and . had done so much 
damage to American commerce, one only was left to 
haul down its flag and quit the high seas, when the 
Confederacy had expired. The rest had been captured 
or sunk. 

The Confederacy on their side, showed the same 
genius for naval warfare as their brethren. The ex- 
ploits of the Merrimac, the Albemarle, the Manassas, 
and the Tennessee, the rapid development of great 
gun manufacturing and of torpedoes, were quite as 
remarkable as the cruises of the Alabama. 

Professor Soley, after glancing briefly at the achiev- 
ments of the Confederates, says, " Viewed in the light of 
difficulties to be met by the Confederate Navy, they 
were little less than phenomenal." 

Having pointed out the results achieved, we may 
glance, briefly at two or three of the most dramatic 
incidents of the war, which will serve as an illustra- 
tion of the spirit with which it was carried on. 

On Saturday, March 8th, 1862, the Congress, 50, 
and the Cumberland, 24, were lying in Hampton 
Roads, off Newport News and a little after one o'clock 
was seen coming the Merrimac. This was one of the 



544 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

famous six screw frigates, once the pride of the 
American Navy. She had been scuttled and sunk by 
the Federals at Norfolk but raised and armored by the 
Coufederates. She now ran into and sank the Con- 
gress, with her armed prow acting as a ram. The 
gallant crew of the sinking vessel continued the fight 
till she went down under the water. The Commander 
of the Cumberland, seeing the fate of the Congress, 
ran her ashore. The Merrimac anchored one hundred 
and fifty yards aft and destroyed her at pleasure. 
Other United States vessels were hard by. The Min- 
nesota, aground, was engaged at long range, but the 
Marrimac was of such deep draft, that she could not 
get close to her. The Roanoke and others declined 
the useless combat. The Merrimac went back to Nor- 
folk her prow having been dislocated in her conflict 
with the Congress and the news went North carrying 
with it the greatest consternation. 

The Confederates had built a ship more terrible than 
any that had ever, up to that time, gone into battle. 
The shots from the great guns of the Congress and 
Cumberland had glanced from her sides like pebbles. 
Preparations even were made to sink ships in the 
channel at Sandy Hook to save New York from the dread- 
ful monster, for who could tell that anything could stop 
her? But inventive genius was on the Union side too. 
Even while the Merrimac was engaged in its work of 
destruction the little Monitor was coming around the 
Capes, and on the next morning was ready for the 



THE NAVY. 545 

combat. There had been a race between the Federals 
and Confederates as to which should be first completed 
and the Confederates had been one day ahead. Now 
the two vessels, each the product of American genius 
and skill, were to meet. 

They differed in construction, but both were iron- 
clad, and presently in the waters of Hampdon Roads 
was fought a battle, the noise of which resounded even 
across the Atlantic and revolutionized at once the 
navies of the world. The combat lasted four hours 
and then the vessels separated, the Merrimac return- 
ing to Morfolk and the Monitor towards Fortress 
Monroe. Both sides claimed victory. The Merrimac 
as evidence of her claim instances that she returned 
next day to the Roads and was ready to renew the 
combat. 

But the fruits of victory were with the Monitor. 
The Merrimac had gone out to complete her work of 
destruction and was stopped. Her career was ended. 
Shortly afterwards, when the Confederates abandoned 
Norfolk, she was destroyed. The gallantry of officers 
and men on both sides fully sustained the dramatic 
effect of this remarkable combat. Lieutenant Worden, 
commanding the Monitor, while looking through a slit, 
of the pilot house wall was powder burnt and stun- 
ned by the bursting of a shell and he has never 
fully recovered from the effects. He and his crew 
were thanked by Congress and the country has ever 
since held them in grateful remembrance. In 1886 



546 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

t 
this gallant officer had become a rear-admiral and he 
was then, at his own request, retired with the full 
pay of his grade. 

The Democrats do not, generally favor promotion or 
increase of pay on the retired list. They believe the 
privileges of the law providing for retirement have 
been much abused, but, so universal was their admir- 
ation of Lieutenant Worden's gallantry, that no voice 
was raised againt this second and last honor conferred 
upon him by Congress. 

> David G. Farragut was born for a sea-king and he 
came early to look upon his heritage. At nine years 
old he was appointed midshipman and at eleven he 
was in active service, taking part in some of the 
stirring" adventures of the war of 1 8 12. 

His gallant fight with, and passage, and capture of 
Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the Mississippi, in 
April, 1862, deserve to rank among the great naval 
battles of the world. 

His riding to victory over the torpedoes in Mobile 
Bay was also a memorable exploit, and connected with 
it was an instance of chivalric generosity worthy of the 
pages of romance. The Tecumseh, an iron-clad, was 
sunk by a Confederate torpedo. In the conning tower 
at the time were Captain A. T. Craven and the pilot. 
The vessel settled so rapidly after the explosion of the 
torpedo that only one of them could be saved. They 
both started for the door which was the only mode 
of escape. As Captain Craven saw that they were 



THE NAVY. 547 

about to reach it at the same time, he stopped and 
said, "After you, .pilot." The pilot was saved, the 
gallant Captain went down with the Tecumseh. 

The Hartford, the Flagship of Admiral Farragut 
stands out in the History of our Civil War like the 
Constitution in the war of 1812. The latter we still 
have, she is now receiving ship at Portsmouth, pre- 
served and handed down with patriotic care to the 
present generation. The Hartford is at present mueh 
decayed, but during the present session of Congress, 
Mr. Whitthorne, a Southern Democrat, reported a bill, 
unanimously recommended by the House Committee 
on Naval affairs, making a special appropriation to 
repair and preserve her as a memorial of the past. 

At this writing, September 7th, the bill has not 
passed the Senate. 

Space will permit the record of only one more in- 
cident of the war — a deed as brave as man ever per- 
# formed. The Albemarle, a Confederate iron-clad ram, 
after her brave battle, in April, with the United States 
flotilla at the mouth of the Roanoke river, lay quietly 
at the Plymouth wharf for five months protecting the 
town against an attack by water. Lieutenant dishing, 
of the United States Navy conceived a plan to destroy 
her. One dark October night, with a crew of only 
fifteen officers and men, his little boat, armed with 
and trusting mainly to a spar torpedo had quietly 
passed the Confederate picket boat and approached so 
near to the Albemarle that Cushing saw there was a 



54 8 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



defensive outwork of logs floating some thirty feet off 
from her. Just at this moment he was discovered by the 
guard on the iron-clad. The alarm rattle was sounded 
and the crew flew to their guns. Cushing saw he was 
too close and his boat had too little momentum to enable 
him to ride over the logs, so he hurriedly backed, and 
then amid a storm of shot and shell ran the bow of his 
boat far over the logs, close to the Albemarle, lowered 
his spar, placed the torpedo coolly under the Albemarle 
and exploded it. Cushing's companions were all killed, 
captured or drowned — he alone escaped. He swam the 
river, hid himself in a swamp, and twenty-four hours after- 
wards told his tale to the wondering officers of the federal 

fleet. 

Since i S66. 

At the close of the Civil War our Navy was so pow- 
erful that, in the opinion of Admiral Porter, we were able 
to meet at sea either France or England. But in May, 
1876, this same distinguished officer said: "Our Navy 
taken as a whole is worth nothing, and the sooner the 
country understands that fact the better." This wonderful 
decline did not result from any want of money. The ex- 
penditures on the Navy for the twelve months ending 
June 30, 1866, were $43,285,662. It is fair to say, how- 
ever, that at least one year was necessary to bring the 
establishment down to a peace footing; but the cost of 
the Navy for the ten years beginning July I, 1866, and 
ending July 1, 1876, may be fairly regarded as expendi- 
tures in time of peace, and they amounted to $234,191,- 
1 19.10. During all this time the Republican party was 



THE NAVY. 



549 



solely responsible for the government, because it was in 
possession of both branches of Congress and, indeed, of 
every department. Now during this decade, ■ 1866-76, the 
Navies of Europe, profiting by the lessons taught by our 
experience, had wonderfully developed both in ships and 
their armament. How it was that our Navy had in the mean- 
time not only failed to improve but absolutely retrograded, 
will be seen by referring to the appendix to this article. 

In 1874 a Democratic House of Representatives was 
chosen. The Congress then elected convened on the first 
Monday of December, 1875, and the first appropriation 
bill passed by that body was for the fiscal year beginning 
July I, 1876, and ending June 30, 1877. The difference 
between the expenditures for the Navy during that fiscal 
year and the year preceding was $4,904,274.46. 

The Democratic party has been in power and conse- 
quently partly responsible for the appropriations for every 
year except two from July 1, 1876, down to the present. 
A comparison of the expenditures of the Navy for the 
decade from July 1, 1 876, to July 1, 1886, with the previous 
decade shows a difference in favor of the later decade, dur- 
ing which the Democratic party had influence, of £80,880,- 
286.95. There was some difference between the amounts 
paid during these two decades to the personnel of the 
Navy, resulting from the fact that the number of men and 
officers was somewhat reduced by the act of August, 
1882. Making due allowance for this, the difference be- 
tween the expenditures in the two decades was $72,238,- 
267.77. This sum, saved in ten years, is enough to build 
and equip a modern navy. 



55o 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



In 1884 a Democratic administration was elected and 
came into power March 4, 1885. Soon after President 
Cleveland was inaugurated, the Secretary of the Navy 
turned his attention to the reorganization of the Navy De- 
partment, which, as we have seen, the Admiral of the 
Navy so severely criticised in his " Naval History of the 
Civil War." The same distinguished officer, in his report 
for 1886 made to Secretary Whitney, said: "I think the 
opinion is general throughout the service that until the 
department is reorganized we can have no system, maintain 
no proper discipline, and build no effective ships. .... 
The reorganization must take place sooner or later, and 
whoever achieves so great a victory will deserve the thanks 
of the country." Secretary Chandler, the last incumbent 
of the office preceding Secretary Whitney, had, in nis re- 
port for 1884, also recommended a reorganization. 

A bill was prepared and introduced at the first session 
of the Forty-ninth Congress, which, it is believed, met not 
only the views expressed by Admiral Porter, but also those 
advocated by Secretary Chandler in his report. The House' 
Committee on Naval Affairs, after giving it a thorough 
consideration, reported it favorably. Two of the Repub- 
lican members of the committee, Messrs. Thomas, of Il- 
linois, and Buck, of Connecticut, gentlemen of extensive 
information and high character, joined in the favorable re- 
port and supported the bill. It is always difficult to re- 
form laws that are of long standing ; especially is this so 
when it becomes necessary to abolish offices filled, as they 
were in this case, by eminent and deserving men. If the 
Democratic majority had been able to achieve " so great a 



THE NAVY. 



551 



victory" as to pass their bill they would, in the language 
of Admiral Porter, certainly have deserved " the thanks of 
the country ; " but the Republicans in the House resorted 
to parliamentary tactics which enabled them to defeat its 
passage. So the reform was not effected, and the eight 
rival bureaus of the Navy Department still exist. 

When Secretary Whitney was sworn into office our old 
wooden navy was rapidly passing away. In addition to 
the Powhatan, Tennessee, Shenandoah, Wachusett, and 
Lackawanna, which since then have been put permanently 
out of commission, the table on the following page shows 
the serviceable wooden vessels of which our navy then 
consisted. 

This table shows that, unless the Hartford be spe- 
cially repaired, regardless of expense, there will remain, six 
years hence, only four of these vessels; and that, in nine 
years, the last of the navy that once carried our flag so 
proudly around the world will have passed away forever. 
In addition to these wooden vessels Secretary Whitney 
found on hand a- number of old single-turretted monitors, 
then lying up in ordinary, and not since considered worth 
repairing; also five double-turretted monitors — the Puri- 
tan, Amphithrite, Miantonomah, Terror, and Monadnock. 
These latter vessels had been begun and partially 
constructed from 1873 to 1875, without any authority 
of law. Vast sums of money had been expended upon 
them, and some of them were far on the way to comple- 
tion, but none of them were yet armored save the Mian- 
tonomah, and that only partially. It became a very 
serious question what the department should do with these 



552 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



ships : they were antiquated in style, not first-class in 
workmanship, and, if finished as designed, would be slow. 



Table Showing Wooden Ships of Old Navy; when Built, Probable 
Length of Service, etc. 

[From Bureau of Construction and Repair.] 



Name of 
Vessel. 



Trenton 

Lancaster . . . 
Brooklyn . . . 
Pensacola ... 

Hartford 

Richmond... . 

Omaha 

Vandalia . . . 

Juniata 

Ossipee 

Quinnebaug . 

Swatara 

Galena 

Marion 

Mohican. . . . 
Iroquois 
Kearsarge. . . 

Adams 

Alliance 

Essex 

Enterprise. . . 

Nipsic 

Tallapoosa . . 

Yantic 

Despatch . . . 
Thetis 



1873-77 

1858 

1858 
1858-62 

1858 

1858 
1867-69 
1872-76 

1862 

1861 
1871-77 

1872 
1871-78 

I87I-75 
1872-83 

1858 

1861 
1874-76 
1873-7611,375 
i874-76!i,375 



3.9°° 
3*250 
3,000 
3,000 
2,900 
2,700 
2,400 
2,100 
1,900 
1,900 
1,900 
1,900 
1,900 
1,900 
1,900 
1,575 
i*55° 
1,375 



'Ex— -^ a -1 

. r O O 4> 



$1 



1873-76 

1873-79 

1874 

1864 

I874 

(J) 



1,375 

i,375 

1,270 

900 

560 



451,592.37 
670,081.00 
417,921.00 
773-573-02 
502,650.00 
556,259.00 
892,178.84 

899,33744 
364,820.00 
407,064.20 
720,113.69 
605,648.65 
841,730.12 
742,31941 
409,895.12 
307,155.00 
286,918.00 
500,879 98 
6i3,533-45 
539,384.31 
553,266.86 
516,038.61 
306,669.15 

232,757.15 
106,222.84 



o + • 

II 

<L> 



$372.20 
266.14 
I39-30 
25785 
138.84 
20972 
37I.07 
428.25 
I92.0I 
214.24 
I39.OO 
318.76 

443- 01 
390.69 

215-73 
195.01 
184.84 

364.27 
446.20 
392.26 
402.37 

374-57 
241.49 
258.61 
295.06 



£■£• 



o p 



o "3 "3 
< 



$615,477.29 

770,857.94 

1,732,517.78 

2,048,222.28 

1,597,600.21 

i,554,48o.8i 

678,595-56 

421,292.01 

1,184,697.45 

1,510,991.10 

113,228.29 

514,687.13 

158,316.60 

303,886.27 

71,601.50 

1,114,967.31 

1,082,672.68 

329,031.37 

279,446.05 

301,453.98 

307,218.81 

I79,394.56 

303,44977 

623,426 40 

239,850.64 



o -2 <l> 



g ftp. 



* o 



$157.81 
231.03 

577-55 
682.74 
550.68 

575-73 
282.76 
200.61 
623.52 
794-73 
59-59 
270 

83-32 
159.94 

37-68 
707 
697.85 
240.02 
203.24 
219.24 
223.44 
13047 
238.97 
692.69 
428.30 



Y'rs. 
6 

3 

6 
6 
*9 
5 
6 

9 

3 
5 

( y 

4 
4 
9 

6 
6 
5 
5 
5 
5 
4 
5 
2 
1 
9 



* If repaired. f Six months. J Purchased from England. 

Secretary Whitney, on full consideration, decided that, if 
clad with modern armor, they would make good coast de- 
fence vessels. He would never have approved the building 



THE NAVY. 



553 



now of such vessels, but he came to the conclusion that it 
was better to complete than to sell them for old iron. 
So, at his suggestion, Congress authorized them to be 
armored. This administration also found three cruisers 
— the Atlanta, 3,189 tons displacement, the Boston, 
3,189, and the Chicago, 4,500, and the Dolphin, a dis- 
patch-boat of 1,485 tons displacement, all well on the 
way towards completion, and they are all now practically 
finished. The Chicago has made, on her speed trial, 
14 knots per hour, the Boston 14 knots, the Atlanta 
16.33, an d the Dolphin 15.5. Speed is a very impor- 
tant requisite of a man-of-war. The old Constitution, 
so celebrated in the war of 18 1 2, made, as her log-book 
shows, in 1809, 13^ knots in an hour. One of her most 
celebrated feats was an escape she made during the war 
of 1812 when hotly chased by five British vessels. If a 
cruiser is intended to act as a commerce destroyer, as 
the Argus did in 18 13, when the instructions of our 
Navy Department to her were to " destroy all you cap- 
ture, unless in some extraordinary cases that clearly 
warrant an exception," or as the Alabama and Florida 
did during our civil war, then speed is absolutely neces- 
sary. A modern vessel that is not fast enough to run 
away from an armored cruiser or to catch a merchant 
vessel would be of little value except as a part of a great 
fleet. No prudent naval commander would now send out 
upon the high seas unaccompanied a slow unarmored 
cruiser. So this administration when it began to rebuild 
our navy determined to have all its vessels the very fleet- 
est of their class, as far as this could be done without 



554 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



the sacrifice of other necessary requisites. To have speed 
great power is requisite; to have endurance a large supply 
of coal is necessary ; and to accommodate crew and arma- 
ment both space and tonnage are essential. A vessel in 
which either of these essentials is unduly sacrificed is, to 
that extent, unfitted for a cruiser. So it is that a small 
vessel cannot have great speed unless armament and en- 
durance is sacrificed. Secretary Whitney, giving great 
importance to speed, and endeavoring, as far as possible, 
to secure it without the sacrifice of other necessary qual- 
ities, has offered to the builders of the ships he has laid 
down a premium for an increase of, and exacted a penalty 
for failure to reach the speed or horse-power indicated 
in the several contracts he has made. 

He has already laid down five unarmored cruisers which 
are expected to be very fast. The Newark, 4,083 tons dis- 
placement, is to have 18 knots speed; the Charleston, 
3,730, 18 knots; the Baltimore, 4,413, 19 knots; the Phila- 
delphia, 4,324, 19 knots; the San Francisco, 4,083, 19 
knots. The bill which has just passed Congress provides 
for seven new vessels : one, an armored cruiser, 7,500, 
which is expected to reach 19 knots; three unarmored 
cruisers of 2,000 tons each are expected to make 18 
knots; two, of 3,000 tons each, are to be guaranteed to 
make 19 knots, and one of 5,300 tons to be guaranteed to 
make 20 knots. Thus, when these vessels last authorized 
shall have been put under contract, this administration will 
have begun twelve fast cruisers, the slowest of which is to 
make 18 knots and over. It is believed that all, or nearly 



THE NAVY. 



555 



all, these fast cruisers will attain greater speed than is 
above indicated. 

Besides these, Secretary Whitney has contracted for the 
construction of four gun-boats, the Concord, Bennington, 
and Yorktown, of 1,700 tons, each expected to make at 
least 16 knots, and the Petrel, 1,830, to make 13 knots. 
He has begun also at Norfolk an armored battle-ship, the 
Texas, 6,300 tons, expected to make 17 knots, and at 
Brooklyn Navy Yard an armored cruiser, 6,648, to make 
17 knots an hour. Plans are also being perfected for an 
armored coast-defence vessel of the monitor type. Besides 
these the Vesuvius, 725 tons displacement and to carry 
three pneumatic guns throwing dynamite shells, is soon to 
be completed. This vessel is guaranteed to make 20 knots 
an hour. A small torpedo boat, the Stiletto, has been 
bought, and another torpedo boat, 100 tons displacement, 
is building. The contractor guarantees 22 knots an hour. 
So that, counting the five double-turretted monitors, this 
administration will have provided for nine armored ves- 
sels, four gun-boats, eleven fast unarmored cruisers, one 
dynamite cruiser, and two torpedo boats, besides finishing 
the Roach cruisers. We shall therefore have, when these 
vessels are completed, a fleet of twenty-nine modern ves- 
sels, exclusive of torpedo boats. 

It has never been thought necessary by the statesmen 
of the past that America should maintain a navy equal in 
size to the fleets of European nations. We have no rival 
on this continent and are fortunately free from entangling 
alliances abroad; but it has always been deemed wise that 
we should have a navy respectable in size, that our ships 
33 



556 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

should be equal to any in the world, and that we should 
have the ability to increase that navy to any extent that 
might be required. By a law passed in 1887 all the 
material for the ships now being built or contemplated is 
to be American, and the armament is likewise to be man- 
ufactured in this country. 

Large sized modern guns are difficult to make and are 
expensive. When this administration came in there were 
no works in this country prepared to forge heavy modern 
armor or steel guns larger than eight inches. At the last 
session of the Forty-ninth Congress, the House Committee 
on Naval Affairs reported, and the Congress passed, a bill 
containing large appropriations for the purchase of gun 
steel, armor and armor-plates. This was necessary in order 
to justify contractors in putting up the necessary plant. 
Secretary Whitney has now contracted with the Bethlehem 
Iron Company of Pennsylvania for a supply of gun-steel 
and armor at reasonable prices and to be of the very best 
possible quality. 

Modern ships are supplied not only with heavy but with 
small rapid-firing guns which comprise their "secondary 
batteries." Hotchkiss, an American, invented a gun which, 
in the opinion of experts, is equal to any rapid-firing gun 
in the world, and he has a factory near Paris, < France, from 
which he supplies many of the large fleets of the world 
with part of their armament. Secretary Whitney has in- 
duced him to establish a factory also in Connecticut. In 
his contract he agrees to supply guns to our Navy at 
smaller rates than he has heretofore been asking at his 
factory in Paris. So this administration can fairly claim 



THE NAVY. 



557 



that, during the three years that it has been in power, the 
American Navy has been placed on a footing which makes 
it absolutely independent of the world. 

Three of our navy yards — Brooklyn, Norfolk and San 
Francisco — have been provided for, the money appropriated, 
to put them in first-class condition to build or repair 
modern vessels. It is contemplated to provide, either, at 
Pensacola or elsewhere on the Gulf, as soon as a site can 
be determined upon, another first-class yard. Six, eight 
and ten-inch guns are now being assembled in the Wash- 
ington Navy Yard, and money has been provided for the 
erection of such a plant as will enable the government to 
build there the guns of fifteen and sixteen inches calibre. 

The ordinary current expenses of the Navy, leaving 
out public works, new plant for navy yards and sums to 
increase the Navy, have been brought to a point lower 
than ever before since our civil war began. The appro- 
priation law just passed carries for such current expenses 
only $12,678,225.45. Appropriations, by this Congress are 
particularly low for repairs — it is not considered true 
policy to expend much money in keeping longer afloat our 
old wooden vessels. The appropriations altogether for the 
incoming year, including public works, naval academy, 
maintenance, and increase of the Navy, amount to $19,- 
943,225.45. In round numbers the expenses are to be less 
than $20,000,000. Twenty years ago, in 1868, the expendi- 
tures on the navy were $25,775,502.72. That was when 
the Navy was rapidly deteriorating. Our population was 
then say 38,000,000 — a tax of about 69 cents per capita 
upon the people of the United States. Thirty years ago, 



553 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



in I S5 8, the expenditures on the Navy were $14,053,264.64, 
or about 46 cents per capita of the then population. In 
1848, naval expenses were $9,408,476.02, or about 42 cents 
per capita of the population at that time, and in 1838 the 
expenditures were $6,131,583.53, amounting to about 38 
cents per capita. Estimating this bill at $20,000,000 and 
our population at 60,000,000, the cost of building up a 
navy and of maintaining it is 33 cents per capita. We 
cannot fully comprehend the meaning of this comparison 
of 33 cents per capita for 1888 and 48 cents 30 years 
ago unless we bear in mind' that the modern ship and 
gun are both of steel and therefore far more costly than 
the old ship, that was made of wood, and the gun, that 
was composed of cast-iron. With our Navy upon the foot- 
ing it now is there seems to be no reason why we 
should, at any time hereafter, expend upon it more than 
$20,000,000 per annum. This will increase it rapidly 
enough. If so, we shall be building up the .Navy for 
about $3,500,000 per annum less than was expended 
during the decade from 1866 to 1876, when the Navy was 
so rapidly rotting. The average annual expenditure then 
was, as we have seen, $23,419,111.91. 

The appropriations of money for the Navy for four years, 
including that for the year ending June 30, 1889, have 
been as follows, including all expenses for new navy, etc. 

For 1886 #16,338,453-23 

" 1887 17,414,154.62 

" 1888 25,867,827.79 

" 1889 19,943,225.45 

Total #79,563,661.19 

Average annual #19*890,915.29 



THE NAVY. 



SUPPLEMENT. 



559 



(Extract from a speech delivered by the author in the National House of Repre- 
sentatives in September, 1888.) 

How much money have we spent, since the new era of 
iron-ship building began, on our Navy and what have we 
to show for it? I will not speak now of the expenditures 
during the spring of 1865 and the year and more that 
followed till July I, 1866. The fleets of the Union had 
wonderfully expanded during the war. There were, when 
hostilities ceased, over 50,000 officers and sailors in the 
naval service. But the time from April, 1865, to July, 
1866, was or ought to have been enough to bring the 
Navy down to a peace footing. 

By the act of July 25, 1866, the number of officers and 
men and boys in the Navy was limited to 10,260. This 
limit was never changed till August 2, 1882. Even then it 
was not very greatly lowered. It was made 9,549, where 
it has since remained. I cite these laws to show that the 
vast difference between the expenditures of the two decades 
I am about to compare did not result, except to a very 
limited extent, from any difference in the amounts paid 
out to officers and sailors. To make this still more certain 
I present here a table showing the amounts paid to the 
persoiinel of the Navy each year during both decades. 
The average difference each year was $864,202 more for 
the first than for the second of these two decades. 

Amounts paid to personnel of the Navy. 

FIRST DECADE. 

July 1, 1866, to July 1, 1867 #9>° 2 3>39i-32 

July 1, 1867, to July 1, 1868 8,962,635.74 



560 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

July I, 1868, to July 1, 1869 1 $8,525,952.84 

July 1, 1869, to July 1, 1870 7,854,330-53 

July 1, 1870, to July 1, 1871 7>o93>73 2 -°7 

July 1, 1871, to July 1, 1873,.... 7,213,13375 

July 1, 1872, to July 1, 1873 7,o93,9 2 9-°° 

July 1, 1873, to Ny 1, 1874 7,549,855-94 

July I, 1874, to July 1, 1875 7,248,996.83 

July 1, 1875, to J ul y I, 1876 7,077,943.00 

Total $77,643,901 .02 

SECOND DECADE. 

July I, 1876, to July 1, 1877 $7,021,758.45 

July 1, 1877, to July 1, 1878 7,215,082.36 

July 1, 1878, to July 1, 1879 6,868,275.00 

July 1, 1879, to July 1, 1880 6,351,892.21 

July 1, 1880, to July 1, 1881 6,903,581.35 

July 1, 1881, to July 1, 1882 , 6,771,135.24 

July 1, 1882, to July 1, 1883 6,902,777.87 

July 1, 1883, to July 1, 1884 6,765,523.67 

July I, 1884, to July I, 1885 7,249,589.41 

July 1, 1885, to July 1, 1886 6,952,264.28 

Total $69,001,879.84 

Difference in two decades $8,642,021 .18 

Average annual difference $864,202.11 

Now, bearing in mind this sum, which is to be deducted 
when we come to consider the net results of our com- 
parison, let us look at the 

DECADE FROM JULY I, 1 866, TO JULY I, 1 876. 

This was an era during which there was, so far as ex- 
penditures were concerned, but one party in the Union, or 
rather only one party that had power to make itself felt 
in the councils of the government. A Democratic House 



THE NAVY. 



5 6l 



was elected in the fall of 1874, but it did not convene till 
December, 1875, and the first fiscal year for which it ap- 
propriated money began July 1, 1876, and ended June 30, 
1877. 

Now, the yearly expenditures upon the Navy during 
this decade — from July I, 1866, to July 1, 1876 — when Re- 
publicans had full control of all expenditures, averaged, as 
shown by the table I have here, in round numbers, $23,- 
419,000. 

Here it is : 

Statement of expenditures for the United States Navy from the 
fiscal year 1867 to the year 1 876, inclusive. 

July I, 1866, to June 30, 1867 $31,034,011.04 

July 1, 1867. to June 30, 1868 25,775,502.72 

July 1, 1868, to June 30, 1869 20,000,757.97 

July I, 1869, to June 30, 1870 21,780,2219.87 

July I, 1870, to June 30, 1871 19,431,027.21 

July I, 1871, to June 30, 1872 21,249,809.99 

July I, 1872, to June 30, 1873 23,526,256.79 

July I, 1873, to June 30, 1874 30,932,587.42 

July I, 1874, to June 30, 1S75 21,497,626.27 

July I, 1875, t0 J une 3°> 1876 18,963,309.82 

Total $234,191,119.10 

Yearly average, $23,419,111.91. 

Admiral Porter, in his " Naval History of the Civil 
War," says, on page 828 : 

When the war ended the United States had attained a posi- 
tion, as a naval power, never before reached by the Republic, 
and could claim to be able to meet either France or England 
upon the ocean. 

In May, 1876, the same distinguished officer was exam- 



562 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ined before the Whitthorne committee, and he says (see 
page 7 of Report No. 704, first session, Forty-fourth Con- 
gress) : 

Our Navy, taken as a whole, is worth nothing, and the 
sooner the country understands that fact, the better. 

Commodore Nicholson, Commander Meade, and other 
officers testify to the same effect. Now, how was it pos- 
sible that, notwithstanding an expenditure in the mean 
time upon it of $234,000,000, our Navy could have been 
brought down in ten years from the proud position which 
Admiral Porter says it occupied when the war closed, to 
the pitiable plight in which he said it was when he tes- 
tified before the Whitthorne committee? To emphasize 
and make still more startling this question, Mr. Speaker, 
let me call your attention to another decade, the 

DECADE FROM JULY I, 1 876, TO JULY I, 1 886. 

This second decade of our naval history, after the close 
of our civil war, began with the advent of a Democratic 
House of Representatives at the session of 1875-76. The 
expenditures of the Navy for the fiscal year beginning 
July I, 1876, the first year for which a Democratic House 
appropriated, were $4,904,274.46, in round numbers $5,000,- 
OOO less than for the previous year. The House has been 
Democratic in every Congress, save one, since 1875, and 
the decade of expenditures which began with the advent 
of Democratic rule here shows a saving of largely over 
$80,000,000. Here are the figures, and they speak for 
themselves. The saving in ten years has been enough to 
build a great navy: 



5^3 



THE NAVY. 

Expenditures of the Navy from the year 1877 to the year 
1886, inclusive. 

l8 77 #14,059,035.36 

l8 7 8 1 7,365,361 .27 

1879 15,125,126.84 

1880 13,536,984.74 

1881 15,686,671.66 

1882 15,032,646.26 

l88 3 15,283,437.17 

1884 17,292,601.44 

1885 16,021,079.67 

i 88 6 13,907,887.74 

Total $153,310,832.15 

Yearly average $15,331,083.21 

Total first decade, 1867 to 1876, inclusive $234,191^119.10 

Total second decade, 1877 to 1886, inclusive 153,310,832.15 

Difference $80,880,286.95 

THE DIFFERENCE AND THE REASONS FOR IT. 

If we deduct from this sum of £80,880,286.95 the sum 
of £8,642,019.18, which is the difference between the 
amounts paid in the two decades to the personnel of the 
Navy, we have still left the vast sum of £72,238,267.77 as 
the difference between the two periods, or an average of 
£7,223,000 saved every year after the Democrats began to 
have power in the government; and if the administration 
of this government continues to be for ten years from 
the date when Grover Cleveland came in such as it has 
been so far we shall build a good navy for a far less sum 
devoted each year to its increase than a Democratic House 



564 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



is fairly entitled to claim it actually saved to the country 
during the ten years ending with June, 1886. 

I do not propose to go back into the facts developed 
by the investigations by a Democratic House of Repre- 
sentatives twelve years ago. To substantiate my proposi- 
tion as to actual saving on the one hand and wasteful ex- 
travagance on the other, I .have cited the record made 
since that investigation, the contrast between the decades 
preceding and following that investigation, the figures show- 
ing the expenditures in the one and in the other, and I 
now need only to call attention, as samples of waste and 
extravagance, to a few of the legacies handed down from 
that first decade even to this day. These speak a lan- 
guage which cannot be misunderstood. 

One of the legacies to which this administration suc- 
ceeded is a lot of timber. We have on hand now, in our 
different navy-yards, live-oak timber that cost the people 
of this country $1,807,502.25. This is the table furnished 
at my request by the Bureau of Construction and Repair, 
showing the amounts of timber on hand in different navy- 
yards : 

LIVE-OAK. 

New York, 113,961 cubic feet, at $2 $227,922.00 

Mare Island, 58,956 cubic feet, at $2 117,912.00 

Portsmouth, 169,944 cubic feet, at $2 339,908.00 

Boston, 425,045^ cubic feet, at $2 724,145.99 

League»Island, 6,601 j4 cubic feet, at $2 4,227.05 

Washington, 44,030^ cubic feet, at $2 78,430.62 

Norfolk, 233,287 cubic feet, at. #2 '. 314,956.59 

Total .• $1,807,502.25 



THE NAVY. 



565 



Here is a table that shows when that timber was pur- 
chased : 

1866-67 $168.00 

1867-68 29.50 

1868-69 1,534-75 

1870-71 99,942.23 

1871-72. . 264,982.58 

1872-73 561,494.99 

1873-74 464,624.75 

1874-75 478,302.04 

1875-76 514,943.84 

1876-77 '. 322,677.64 

Total $2,708,700.32 

It was practically all bought at a time — from 1870 to 
1877 — when all the world was passing rapidly away from 
wooden ships ; at a time when no expert, no man of even 
common intelligence, could for a moment have believed 
it was a prudent purchase ; and to-day it is absolutely 
worthless. It is impossible to sell it for any purpose. 
The manner in which money was wasted in the Bureau of 
Construction and Repair is further illustrated by the Sec- 
retary in his report for 1887. I read: 

THE TENNESSEE. 

Among the vessels dropped from the Nav^ Register and 
sold during the past year is the Tennessee. 

The account of the sale is stated elsewhere. 

The histoiy of this vessel is quite interesting and most 
illustrative. «She had a short life, but, as a consumer of 
money, a brilliant one. Her hull was built and she was 
equipped in the New York navy yard. Her machinery was 
designed and built under contract by the eminent engineer, 
Mr. John Ericsson, costing £700,000. Her total original cost 



C& THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



500 



was $1,856,075.81. Upon her trial trip, in January, 1867, she 
ran about 1,000 miles. She attained a speed of 16 knots, and 
made a run of 15 knots per hour for four hours. She 
encountered a perilous storm, described as a hurricane, which 
continued over twenty-four hours. The ship suffered con- 
siderably. The report of her commander says : 

" The engines moved off finely and worked perfectly during 

all the storm Her machinery is as perfect as it 

needs to be. It has undergone the severest test and not once 
found wanting. She is the fastest ship I have ever seen." 

The chief-engineer says : 

" If the strength and workmanship of the machinery cannot 
be depended upon then no reliance is to be placed upon the 
performance of any steam machinery with which I am ac- 
quainted." 

Two years afterwards she underwent what w r as called 
"repairs," and the sum of $576,799.61 was spent upon her; 
all but $73,000 of this was put on her hull and equipment. It 
was the full price of a new wooden hull of her size at that 
time. This was from 1869 to 187 1. She then made a cruise 
of three months, and went into the hands of Mr. John Roach 
to enable him to take out the machinery and boilers of John 
Ericsson and substitute others of superior character. It was 
among other things expected to give the ship a 14^-knot 
speed for twenty-four hours. 

When she had her trial of this new machinery in 1875 her 
maximum speed was ioj^ knots, and she had had put upon 
her an expense of $801,713.60 in addition to the value of her 
machinery and boilers taken in trade by Mr. Roach at $65,000. 
This machinery had cost $700,000; had not been in actual 
service six months ; had never been surveyed and condemned 
by a board of government officers, nor its value fixed by any 
government board, but it was sold to Mr. Roach as old iron. 

That is to say, between 1869 and 1875 the Tennessee had 
had three months' service, and had cost in repairs and im- 
provements $1,443,513.21. 

This was largely in excess of a fair price for a new ship of 
her characteristics. 

Twelve years afterwards (on April 4, 1887) she is con- 
demned by the Statutory Board as unseaworthy and not worth 
repairing, and ordered sold, having had put upon her between 



THE NAVY. 



567 



1875 and 1887 the additional sum of $577,716.17. She 
brought $34,525 at the auction sale. She had cost the gov- 
ernment $3,800,000 in round numbers, and had done about 
ten years of active service outside of repair shops and navy 
yards. 



Another specimen; look at a table I have here, and 
which I shall allude to further hereafter. It gives, among 
other things, the names of our present wooden vessels, the 
dates when they were built, and the cost per ton of dis- 
placement. The Alliance, a wooden vessel, was built 
from 1 873-1 876. She cost $446.20 per ton. The Enter- 
prise, a wooden vessel, was built from 1 873-1 876. She 
cost $402.37 per ton. The Yantic, a wooden vessel, 
was built in 1864. She is the only war-built vessel re- 
maining. She was built when, if ever, extravagance was 
excusable ; built at a time when currency was at a much 
greater discount than it was from 1873 to 1876; and yet 
her cost was only $258.61 per ton; not much more than 
half the cost of the Alliance and the Enterprise. 

The waste, the profligacy, was everywhere, in all the 
bureaus; and out of the debris left over in our navy yards 
and storehouses from that first decade, the figures for 
which I have cited, it has been possible to effect econo- 
mies even during the present administration. To illus- 
trate : 

The first bill appropriating money for the navy after this 
administration came in was passed during the first session 
of the Forty-ninth Congress. 

For the ordinary current expenditures of the navy for 
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1887, the appropriations 



$6% ' THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

in that bill were less by $493,136.42 than for the previous 
year. The amounts appropriated, however, were sufficient, 
for the deficiencies under the bill were less, as the results 
show, than $8,000, and more than that sum was turned 
back into the Treasury. In addition to the reductions in 
appropriations for that year the House Committee on 
Naval Affairs recommended and the Congress turned back 
into the Treasury moneys theretofore standing to the credit 
of the Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, and operating, 
because not needed, as a continuing temptation to extrava- 
gance, the sum of $250,000 from the clothing fund and 
$75,000 from the small-stores fund. 

How these results were accomplished will be partly 
shown by reading some extracts from what I said on this 
floor in explanation of the bill when it was before the 
House in May, 1886. Speaking of the extravagance of the 
Bureau of Provisions and Clothing, and alluding to frauds 
in connection with that bureau, which had been committed 
many years back, but the effects of which reached down to 
the present, I said: 

As far back as 1843 the present system was established 
by which the government furnishes to sailors their clothing, 
charging them cost price for it, and the fund which was 
appropriated originally for that purpose is turned over and 
over again and not paid back to the government. It is a con- 
tinuous appropriation. For a long time ten per cent, was 
added to the cost in order to cover waste and other expenses. 
Some ten or twelve years ago it was deemed this was unfair 
to the sailor, and the ten per cent, was omitted, and since that 
time only the cost price has been charged to the sailor. There 
is on hand now in money belonging to this bureau for clothing 
$562,000; of clothing goods in store, $437,000; on ship- 
board, $241,000, making in all $1,242,000 in money and in 



THE NAVY. 



569 



clothing. We ask ourselves the question, what is the use for 
all this ? 

It turns out that the average amount of expenditures for 
clothing the navy for a year is $276,000. So that here is a 
supply on hand of money and clothing for four years and a 
half. The last appropriation that was made was in 1 875. All 
the time since that date this — all that has not been wasted — 
has been on hand in that bureau. Now, what has been the 
consequence ? The answer is, waste and extravagance. There 
has been a loss on sales of condemned clothing in the last 
ten years of $272,000. And there has been a loss by the 
reduction in the price of clothing on hand which had to be 
reduced in order to adjust it to the prices ruling in a falling 
market, of $438,000. In other words, this Government has 
lost in this bureau from these two causes in ten years $710,000, 
and this does not account for the losses on clothing now on 
shipboard. And the losses do not stop here. We found, on 
investigation, that we had 6,069 pea-jackets on hand which 
originally cost about $15 apiece, the present price being 
$11.50. We have 6,217 monkey-jackets on hand valued now 
at $9.50 apiece. We called for a list of the different articles 
on hand and the sales of each during the last fiscal year, and 
found that the number of pea-jackets taken by the sailors in 
1885 amounted to ninety-six. If these pea-jackets could last 
so long and not rot and the sales should continue at the rate 
of ninety-six per annum, the Chief of the Bureau of Clothing 
might go to sleep and sleep as long as Rip Van Winkle, yes, 
as long as old Epimenedes, his prototype, that is, fifty-seven 
years, and wake up and find, after his nap was finished, that 
he still had a year's supply of pea-jackets on hand. 

But the truth is that these pea-jackets have become so 
worthless that the sailors refuse to take them. When the 
Secretary orders, as he will, a sale to clear out the worthless 
goods on hand the Government will pocket another loss of 
more than $100,000. We have on hand five and one-half 
years' supply of monkey-jackets, four and one-half years' 
supply of blue cloth trousers, three and one-half years' supply 
of satinet, twelve years' supply of canvas duck, four and one- 
half years' supply of caps, twenty years' supply of mattress 
covers, twenty years' supply of boots. 



570 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



Again I read, further on: 

We next come to the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting. 
The business of this bureau, as its name implies, is to provide 
sails, anchors, chains, ropes, and everything that goes to equip 
a ship. When we look into this bureau we find some things 
which are very astonishing, but they are things for which the 
present distinguished chief of the bureau is in no sense re- 
sponsible. For instance, we find that there is on hand now 
in the Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting " canvas enough 
to fit out the whole British navy ; canvas enough to give two 
suits of sails and a foretopsail to the whole British navy." That 
is the expression of Commodore Schley. Altogether, accord- 
ing to the calculation which I have made upon his figures, we 
have enough to serve our present navy for thirteen years. . . . 

Then we find extravagance in other things. For instance, 
there are these spectacle-irons, used in rigging sails. We 
have on hand of these spectacle-irons or clews 75,099 pounds. 
It is estimated that these are worth $18,744. Upon the esti- 
mate of a thousand to a ton and sixty to two suits of sails we 
have enough on hand to last us for over fifty years. These 
were bought a long time ago, in 1871 and 1872. 

Mr. Speaker, it is well known that old and condemned 
property, property that has ceased to be valuable to the 
Government, brings very little at public sale. Now Secre- 
tary Whitney, in order to get rid of what was utterly val- 
ueless to the Government, has had a thorough overhauling 
of the navy-yards made, an inventory taken, and sales have 
followed. During the year ending June 30 last these sales 
realized $313,204.16. Here is the table. 

List of Condemned Property Sold by the Navy Department 
during the Year 1887-88. 

Old vessels #105,665.88 

Condemned marine clothing 115.88 

Condemned public property «■ . 3°8-37 

Condemned miscellaneous articles 453- 1 1 



THE NAVY. 57! 

Bureau of Yards and Docks $i>734-39 

Bureau of Provisions and Clothing . . 20,558.94 

Bureau of Construction and Repair 57.796-51 

Bureau of Steam Engineering 33,492.83 

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery 3 2 -33 

Bureau of Navigation 1*584.53 

Bureau of Equipment and Recruiting 32,365.95 

Bureau of Ordnance 59»°95-44 

Total $313,204.16 

Now, sir, I have said enough on this point. There can 
be but one verdict from the public. First, that must be 
that the administration of naval affairs from 1866 to 1876 
was absolutely indefensible. Secondly, that a Democratic 
House has, since 1875-76, saved to the country enough 
money to build a great navy. 
34 



CHAPTER XII. 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



Hon. Perry Belmont, 

Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, National 

House of Representatives. 

THERE has always been, and should be, less partisan- 
ship in the treatment of our foreign relations than in 
the discussion of any other branch of the public service. 
Still, in looking back over the achievements of American 
diplomacy it will be found that the record of the Demo- 
cratic party is one with which the country has reason to be 
satisfied. 

The underlying principle of our diplomatic policy was 

proclaimed by Thomas Jefferson in his inaugural address in 

i 
the well-known declaration: 

" Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, 
entangling alliances with none." 

This terse and epigrammatic statement was a condensa- 
tion of the policy laid down by Washington in his farewell 
address in which he said : 

"The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign 

nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have 

with them as little political connection as possible. So far 

as we have already formed engagements, let them be ful- 

(572) 




^• :::: '"'"•' '.""'■' 



TERRY BELMONT 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



575 



filled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe 
has a set of primary interests which to us have none or a 
very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in fre- 
quent controversies, the causes of which are essentially 
foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be un- 
wise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties, in the 
ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combi- 
nations and collisions of her friendship or enmities." 

These rules have largely governed our relations with 
foreign nations, and they have scarcely been departed from, 
except during a brief period — not under Democratic ad- 
ministration — when a contrary course was for a time pur- 
sued, with unfortunate results to the national interests. Un- 
der Democratic government the country has returned to 
the traditional American policy. 

In his seventh annual message, sent to 'Congress in 1823, 
President Monroe said : 

" In the wars of the European powers, in matters relat- 
ing to themselves, we have never taken any part nor does 
it comport with our policy so to do. It is only when our 
rights are invaded or seriously menaced that we resent in- 
juries or make preparation for our defence. With the 
movements in this hemisphere we are of necessity more im- 
mediately connected, and by causes which must be obvious 
to all enlightened and impartial observers. The political 
system of the allied powers is essentially different in this 
respect from that of America. This difference proceeds 
from that which exists in their respective governments. 
And to the defence of our own, which has been achieved 
by the loss of so much blood and treasure, and matured by 
the wisdom of their most enlightened citizens, and under 
which we have enjoyed unexampled felicity, this whole 
nation is devoted. We owe it, therefore, to candor, and to 
the amicable relations existing between the United States 
and those powers, to declare that we should consider any 
attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion 



$-6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety. 
With the existing colonies or dependencies of any European 
power we have not interfered, and shall not interfere. But 
with the governments who have declared their independ- 
ence and maintained it, and whose independence we have, 
on great consideration, and on just principles, acknowl- 
edged, we could not view any interposition for the purpose 
of oppressing them, or controlling in any other manner, 
their destiny by any European power, in any other light 
than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition toward 
the United States." 



These sentiments, popularly known as " the Monroe Doc- 
trine," have been several times affirmed by the govern- 
ment of the United States. 

The policy marked out by Washington and Jefferson, of 
non-interference in the internal affairs of other powers and 
of avoidance of political connection with foreign govern- 
ments, was not intended to apply only during the period 
when the United States was weak among civilized nations 
of the earth. In our strength, and on account of our 
strength, this policy is to-day, and always will be, a wise 
one, and Europeans often envy us our situation which 
makes it possible for us to observe such a principle. A 
strict adherence to this policy involves an active, popular 
interest in our foreign relations. In order to carry out the 
great principles of Washington, Jefferson and Monroe and 
keep ourselves clear of complications, the acts of our State 
department and of our diplomatic representatives abroad 
become of the greatest national and political consequence. 
This would seem almost a superfluous statement but for the 
fact that during our civil war, and the reconstruction period 
which followed, we have been so much occupied with our 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



577 



own affairs that our relations with other nations have taken 
only a secondary place in public attention. Now such 
questions are resuming their proper importance in national 
affairs. 

One of the first diplomatic efforts of this government 
was to protect its commerce in the Mediterranean from the 
piratical tribute levied by the Barbary Powers. The Med- 
iterranean ports, before the War of Independence, supplied 
a market for nearly one-fifth of our exports. Jefferson, 
in his biography, says : 

<fc I was very unwilling that we should acquiesce in the 
European humiliation of paying a tribute to those lawless 
pirates, and endeavored to form an association of the powers 
subject to habitual depredation from them." 

Jefferson and Adams took the lead in this matter, and, 
aided by the brilliant naval operations of Decatur, secured 
for the United States a satisfactory treaty with the Barbary 
Powers before any other government had succeeded in 
establishing similar relations. It was during this contro- 
versy that Madison made his celebrated announcement : 

" The United States, whilst they wish for war with no 
nation, will buy peace of none. It is a principle incorporated 
into the settled policy of America that, as peace is better than 
war, war is better than tribute." 

Within the lines of our foreign policy thus marked out, 
there have been numerous and notable achievements of 
American diplomacy in behalf of freedom of navigation 
of rivers, of neutral rights, of arbitration, and the remis- 
sion of imposts upon commerce. The influence of the 
United States has been potent in establishing the inter- 



578 



THE NATIONAL DExMOCRATIC PARTY. 



ternational rules of conduct between civilized nations. 
Through negotiations conducted with Spain by Mr. Jay, 
the free navigation of the Mississippi was conceded even 
before our acquisition of Louisiana and Florida. In a 
similar manner, freedom of navigation of the St. Lawrence 
was obtained from Great Britain. The United States, by 
its diplomatic agents, also took an active part in obtaining 
guarantees for the free navigation of the Amazon, the 
River Platte, and other great navigable streams. The 
burdensome Sound dues levied by Denmark upon Amer- 
ican commerce were removed by a treaty negotiated under 
the administration of Mr. Buchanan. 

In the establishment of neutral rights, the diplomatic 
action of the government has been most effective. The 
principle that " free ships make free goods " (contraband 
of war alone excepted) was early asserted by the United 
States. In 1823 John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State 
under Mr. Monroe, made a proposition to England which 
contemplated not only the suppression of the slave trade, 
but also the entire abolition of private maritime wars. 
England at that time refused to entertain this proposal 
without discussing other maritime subjects. But in all its 
early treaties the United States inserted a stipulation that 
if any citizen or subject of either of the contracting powers 
accepted a letter of marque for the purpose of privateer- 
ing against the other power, that act should be regarded 
as piracy. 

At the Congress of Paris in 1856, at the close of the 
Crimean war, a declaration of principles was signed by all 
the powers there represented, containing these four articles. 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



579 



which were required to be accepted as a whole or not 
at all. 

1. Privateering is and remains abolished. 

2. The neutral flag covers enemies' goods, with the excep- 
tion of contraband of war. 

3. Neutral goods, except contraband of war, are not liable 
to capture under an enemy's flag. 

4. Blockades to be binding must be effective — that is to say, 
maintained by a force really sufficient to prevent access to the 
coast of the enemy. 

The United States Government, being invited to accede 
to these propositions, declined to do so unless private 
property should be exempted from seizure by public as 
well as by private armed vessels. The action of the 
United States in this matter has been imperfectly under- 
stood. The following extracts from official despatches 
make clear the policy of our government Writing to 
Secretary Marcy under date May 29, 1856, our Minister to 
the Hague said : 

" The representatives of the powers, parties to the treaty of 
the 30th of March, have received instructions from their re- 
spective governments to invite Holland to join in the declara- 
tion of the rights of neutrals, and the abolishing of letters of 
marque. I am told that the language of the British circular 
is very pressing, and contains an implied threat that those 
powers which will not adhere now to these conditions are to 
be deprived hereafter of the privileges granted to' the neutral 
flags. . . It is hardly likely that we can subscribe to the con- 
dition of purchasing our rights as neutrals at the sacrifice of 
our most effective means of retaliation and defence in case of 
war with one of the great powers of Europe. Such a step 
would only be warrantable on our part if England, France and 
Russia were to join in a declaration that private ships and 
property of the enemy are to be henceforth exempt from 
seizure, or that these powers would consent to reduce their 



580 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



navies to the strict requirements of the protection of their 
commerce, and I hardly think that we can as yet expect that 
progress towards the millennium." 

Secretary Marcy replied July 14, 1856: 

" The United States have learned with sincere regret that in 
one or two instances the four propositions, with all the condi- 
tions annexed, have been promptly, and this government can- 
not but think unadvisedly, accepted, without restriction or 
qualification. It is well known that the United States, abo&t 
two years since, opened negotiations with maritime nations for 
the general adoption of the second and third propositions con- 
tained in the Paris Declaration, and that the fourth is but the 
annunciation of a principle of international law now universally 
recognized. The conditions which are to accompany the ac- 
ceptance of the propositions of the Paris Conference will, as a 
necessary consequence, defeat the negotiations of the United 
States for the adoption of the second and third of the series 
with every power which has adhered, or may determine to 
adhere, to the Declaration. In the first place, all the four 
propositions must be taken or none ; and second, they must 
be taken not only indivisibly, but with the surrender of an 
important attribute of sovereignty, that of negotiating with 
any nation on the subject of neutral rights, unless such nego- 
tiations embrace all the propositions contained in the Paris 
Declaration. Any nation might well hesitate before making 
such a surrender. . . . The measure, unless it gives a full ap- 
plication to the principle upon which it is based, and is made 
to withdraw private property upon the ocean from seizure by 
public armed vessels, as well as by privateers, will be exceed- 
ingly injurious to the commerce of all nations which do not 
occupy the first rank among naval powers." 

Secretary Marcy make a counter proposition on behalf of 
the United States. Writing to Count Sartiges, the French 
Minister, July 28, 1856, he said: 

"A predominating power on the ocean is still more men- 
acing to the well-being of other nations than a predominant 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



5 8l 



power on land. For that reason all nations are equally inter- 
ested in rejecting a measure tending to favor the permanent 
establishment of such a domination, whether such a domina- 
tion should belong to one power or to several. The losses 
which would probably be the result of abandoning the domi- 
nation of the sea either to one nation owning a powerful navy 
or to several are, above all, due to the custom of submitting 
private property on the ocean to capture by the belligerent 
powers. Justice and humanity demand that this custom be 
abandoned, and that the rule in regard to property on land be 
extended to that on the sea. The President proposes, there- 
fore, to add to the first proposition contained in the declaration 
of the Congress of Paris the following words: 'And that the 
private property of the subjects and citizens of a belligerent on 
the high seas shall be exempted from seizure by public armed 
vessels of the other belligerent, except it be contraband.' " 

In regard to this proposition the United States Minister 
to the Hague wrote to Secretary Marcy- December 14, 
1856: 

" I have no doubt but what your masterly despatch to 
Count Sartiges, in reply to the declaration adopted by the late 
Congress on maritime law, will also be discussed during the 
coming conferences. From all I can ascertain, both France 
and Russia are in favor of adopting your amendment, and 
England can hardly withhold her consent after the speech of 
Lord Palmerston at Liverpool." 

Russia expressed its approval in unmistakable terms. 
Prince GortschakofT, Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote: 

" The proposition of the American Secretary of State does 
not argue the exclusive interests of the United States ; his 
plea is put for the whole of mankind. It grows out of a 
generous thought, the embodiment of which rests upon argu- 
ments which admit of no reply. The attention of the 
Emperor has in an eminent degree been enlisted by the over- 
tures of the American cabinet. In his view of the question 
they deserve to be taken into serious consideration by the 



582 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



powers which have signed the treaty of Paris. They would 
honor themselves should they, by a resolution taken in com- 
mon and proclaimed to the world, apply to private property 
on the seas the principle of inviolability which they have ever 
professed for it on land." 

Though no formal adhesion was given to the views of 
the American government by Great Britain, the principles 
thus contended for by the United States have been* sub- 
stantially observed in subsequent European wars, and to- 
day practically govern the conduct of the maritime 
powers. It is highly improbable that in any future war, 
resort will be had to the barbarous system of making re- 
prisals on private property at sea. 

These are some of the valuable results attained by 
American diplomacy under Democratic administration in 
the past. 

The Department of State Under Mr. Bayard. 

The record of the present administration of the State 
Department will show that it has been successful in increas- 
ing our influence and maintaining our honor abroad; that 
by treaty negotiations it has placed in line of settlement 
controversies which have vexed and embarrassed us for 
many years, and that it has, in addition, put its foot 
down upon several well-planned attempts to enlist the in- 
fluence of this government in behalf of interests which 
threatened to bring discredit upon the conduct of our 
diplomatic affairs. 

The claims put forward in the names of Antonio 
Pelletier and A. H. Lazare, against the Republic of Hayti, 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



533 



are conspicuous examples of attempted wrongs upon a 
weak nation which the present State Department has suc- 
cessfully thwarted. 

Pelletier, claiming to be a naturalized citizen of Louisi- 
ana, availing himself of the disturbed condition of affairs 
in that State at the outbreak of the war, purchased at a 
United States Marshal's sale a condemned slave-trader, and 
fitting it out with all the necessary appliances for a con- 
tinuance of that infamous traffic, sailed for Haytian ports 
with a crew of ruffians suited to his purpose. He there, in 
April, 1 86 1, sailing under false papers and under a false 
name, while endeavoring to entice citizens of the Republic 
of Hayti on board his vessel, with a view of kidnapping 
them and carrying them to Louisiana and selling them 
into slavery, was arrested, and with the unanimous con- 
currence of the consular representatives of the leading 
European powers, was tried and convicted in the Haytian 
courts of piracy, his vessel confiscated and he himself im- 
prisoned. In 1864 he escaped from Hayti, and in July of 
that year, with marvellous audacity, filed a claim in the 
State Department against the Haytian government for re- 
dress. Secretary Seward peremptorily refused to interfere, 
holding that the course of the Haytian authorities was 
justified by the reasonable grounds of suspicion presented. 
Pelletier then carried his case to Congress. The Com- 
mittee of Foreign Relations of the Fifty-third Congress, 
through Senator McCreery, of Kentucky, made a unani- 
mous report against the claim, sustaining Mr. Seward's 
opinion. Notwithstanding these facts, during the adminis- 
tration of Mr. Hayes, the case was reopened, and the 



584 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



examiner of claims before the department at that time 
reported that the proof submitted " afforded ground for a 
call upon Hayti for redress." Acting upon that report, 
Secretary Evarts instructed Mr. Langston, United 
States Minister to Hayti, to demand that the justice 
of the claim of Captain Pelletier be submitted to arbitra- 
tion, and if that were not granted, he instructed the 
Minister to state that the government of the United States 
would require the satisfaction of the claim. Under this 
threat the Haytian authorities consented to submit to 
arbitration the solemn adjudication of their courts, which 
they had previously refused to do. The venerable Mr. 
Justice Strong, who had been retired from the Supreme 
Bench of the United States because of advancing age and 
infirmities, was constituted sole arbitrator. He made an 
award in which he declared his opinion " beyond doubt " 
that had Pelletier's bark been captured and brought into 
an American port when she was seized at Fort Liberte, 
Hayti, she would have been condemned by the United 
States courts as an intended slaver. He therefore de- 
cided that Pelletier was entitled to no damages for the 
seizure and confiscation of his ship. But, proceeding on 
the mistaken assumption that the protocol under which he 
was acting debarred him from considering whether Pel- 
letier was guilty of conspiracy under Haytian law, he con- 
fined his consideration to the question whether he was 
guilty of piracy as defined by the law of nations, and on 
the latter theory awarded him $57,250 damages for his 
arrest and imprisonment. In November, 1886, the Haytian 
government filed with the State Department a remonstrance 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



585 



against the execution of the award. Secretary Bayard made 
an exhaustive review of the law and the facts, which was 
transmitted to Congress by the President January 20, 1887. 
Mr. Bayard closed his opinion as follows : 

" I do not hesitate to say that, in my judgment, the 
claim of Pelletier is one which this government should not 
press upon Hayti, neither by persuasion nor by force, and I 
come to this conclusion, first, because Hayti had jurisdiction 
to inflict upon him the very punishment of which he com- 
plains, such punishment being in no way excessive in view 
of the heinousness of the offence ; and, secondly, because 
his cause is of itself so saturated with turpitude and infamy 
that on it no action, judicial or diplomatic, can be based." 

The case of Mr. Lazare was of a simpler character. He 
contracted with the Domingue-Rameau government of 
Hayti to establish a national bank, of which he was to be 
president. By the terms of the contract he was to secure 
one million dollars in specie to be .deposited in the vaults 
of the bank before a named date in 1875; the government 
was to deposit half a million dollars, also in specie, on or 
before the same date ; and upon this capital the bank was 
to be started. Either party complaining of the other had 
the right to apply for arbitration. Mr. Lazare went to 
Europe to negotiate for the deposit of the requisite amount 
in specie, but failed to secure it, and the project collapsed. 
After this Mr. Lazare maintained friendly relations with the 
Domingue-Rameau government for over six months and 
made no request for arbitration. He accepted from them 
$10,000 in Haytian bonds; the appointment as consul-gen- 
eral for Hayti at New York ; and promises of other con- 
tracts in compensation for the expenses he had incurred in 



5 86 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



his futile negotiations. After the Domingue-Rameau gov- 
ernment had been overthrown and Mr. Lazare's appoint- 
ment as consul-general had been revoked, he then, for the 
first time, filed a claim with the State Department for $500,- 
000 damages against the Haytian government, alleging that 
it was by their wrongful acts that he was prevented from 
carrying out his part of the contract. This claim was also 
referred to Judge Strong, as sole arbitrator, who awarded 
the claimant $117,000* but, after the award was filed, on 
giving consideration to some additional facts brought to his 
attention, Judge Strong concurred with Secretary Bayard 
in the opinion that the award was one which ought not to 
be enforced, and it has not been pressed. 

The Cochet, Landreau, and Credit Industrial guano 
scandals, and the efforts made on behalf of speculators to 
enlist the intervention of the United States in the Chili- 
Peruvian war, will probably be recalled without entering 
here into circumstantial details. It was by Democratic 
intervention that those schemes were exposed and the pos- 
sible fruition of one or more of them was prevented. An 
equally flagrant case of the same character, known as the 
Jewett claim, has been checked by Secretary Bayard. James 
C. Jewett, of New York city, claimed to have discovered de- 
posits in the island of Fernando de Noronha, within the 
dominion of the Empire of Brazil. He obtained from the 
Brazilian Minister of Agriculture a permit to remove a cer- 
tain portion of these deposits for experiment, and a condi- 
tional promise of a contract under which, in case of their 
proving valuable, he should receive a certain percentage. 
Mr. Jewett fitted out two small vessels for the purpose of 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. ffi 

exploration. But his agreement with the Minister of Agri- 
culture becoming known excited so much hostility in 
Brazil that the minister had to resign on that account, and 
his successor cancelled all the privileges granted by his 
predecessor, and officially informed the United States of this 
action through the American minister in Brazil and the 
Brazilian minister in Washington. The actual losses in- 
curred by Mr. Jewett in his expeditions, including counsel 
fees and all other charges, taking his own figures, were 
$27,330. These losses all accrued by reason of stress of 
weather and other unfavorable conditions preventing his 
obtaining full cargoes before the rescission of his contract. 
Upon no other basis than this he presented the State De- 
partment a claim against the Brazilian government aggre- 
gating over fifty and one-half million dollars. In the 
Cochet and Landreau claims there was shown to be an 
old Peruvian law which gave to alleged discoverers a color- 
able right to claim one-third of the value of the deposits 
made known by them ; but in Brazil no law of this kind 
existed. Mr. Jewett's demand was a gross exaggeration 
of a possible right of recovering damages for a breach of 
contract, which damages, under no circumstances, could 
exceed the amount stated by himself, namely, $27,330. 
His claim was twice rejected by Secretary Evarts, upon 
the report of the Examiner of Claims of the Department 
of State ; but, during the administration of Secretary Blaine, 
the case was reopened. Mr. Jewett had, in the meantime, 
retained the services of Mr. Steven B. Elkins as his attor- 
ney. On the 8th of August, 1881, Mr. Blaine, in a de- 
spatch addressed to Mr. Osborne, United States Minister 



588 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



to Brazil, reversed the instructions of his predecessor re- 
garding the matter, and also wrote to Mr. Jewett stating 
that he had taken this course "at the request of Steven 
B. Elkins, Esq., your attorney." To Minister Osborne Mr. 
Blaine said emphatically, speaking of the rescinding of 
the Jewett contract and the consequent claim of $50,000,- 
000 damages : 



" I am not sufficiently informed as to the law of Brazil to 
know how far its formal requirements as to the mere question 
of right and title would nullify this action by its Government, 
but I do know that in justice and in equity a responsibility 
has been incurred which cannot be escaped." 



During the term of office of Mr. Frelinghuysen, Mr. 
Blaine's successor, the Jewett claim was allowed to sleep. 
It was brought to the surface again in 1886. On the 10th 
of April in that year Mr. Jewett forwarded to Secretary 
Bayard a protest which he earnestly requested should be 
transmitted to our minister at Rio, to be presented to the 
Brazilian authorities before the 3d of the following June, 
when he understood they proposed to begin the removal 
of some of the nitrates to which he laid claim. Mr. Bay- 
ard took time to thoroughly master the facts. He wrote 
to our Minister in Brazil, Mr. Jarvis, that if an application 
for the favor of Brazil, based upon a supposed equity, had 
been made by Mr. Jewett, and for a sum reasonably pro- 
portioned to his actual pecuniary outlay, a case would have 
been presented in which the personal good offices of the 
United States Minister might have been employed ; but 
that when, on such a narrow basis, consequential, remote, 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



589 



and highly speculative damages were piled up to the exor- 
bitant amount of over $50,000,000, he deemed it his duty 
to at once announce his intention of protecting a friendly 
nation against such unjust demands at the hands of our 
own citizens. To Mr. Jewett he also wrote: 

" This claim is asserted for the egregious sum of $50,625,000, 
and when its alleged basis is examined in the ex parte state- 
ments, affidavits, and letters presented by you and on your 
behalf, the disproportion between any possible loss incurred 
by you and the amount claimed by you from Brazil is enor- 
mous. Such a claim so stated shocks the moral sense and 
cannot be held to be within the domain of reason or justice. 
It would be an act of international unfriendliness for the 
United States to lend themselves in any way or to any degree 
in urging, much less enforcing, such a demand upon a coun- 
try with whom we are, or design to remain, on terms of amity. 
I therefore return the protest, as enclosed by you, and decline 
to transmit it to the United States Minister at Brazil, or to 
instruct him to present it officially or otherwise." 

Which ended the Jewett claim. 

The positive achievements of the present State Depart- 
ment are entitled to grateful recognition. 

An extradition treaty negotiated with Japan, and pro- 
claimed by President Cleveland on the 3d of November, 
1886, has largely enhanced American influence in the East, 
and has opened the way to increased friendly and com- 
mercial relations with Japan. To appreciate the full sig- 
nificance of this treaty it is necessary to consider the posi- 
tion in which Japan has been placed in respect to foreign 
powers. Under treaties now existing the government of 
that country is deprived, not only of jurisdiction over 

foreigners within its territory, but also of the right to reg- 
35 



590 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



ulate its own revenues. The amount of duties it is per- 
mitted to collect on importations is controlled by rates 
fixed in treaties entered into years ago, which at the 
present day are entirely insufficient for the actual needs 
of the country and for the proper development of its 
resources. For a long time Japan has been trying to get 
free from this yoke, and numerous conferences have been 
held for the purpose of revising the treaties. These 
efforts, however, have heretofore failed, owing chiefly to 
the obstruction of one or two powers. In addition to this 
source of embarrassment certain nations, especially Great 
Britain, have claimed the right, under treaty provisions 
granting extra territoriality, to pursue their own alleged 
fugitive criminals into Japanese territory and to arrest them 
and carry them away, thus denying to Japan the ordinary 
right of asylum. Under these circumstances, when the 
United States, through Secretary Bayard, proposed an ex- 
tradition treaty distinctly recognizing the autonomy of 
Japan, the gratitude of that nation was warmly aroused. 
The Japan Mail of September 3, 1886, referring to the 
conclusion of the treaty, said: "President Cleveland's an- 
nouncement that one reason for the conclusion of the ex- 
tradition treaty is because of the support which it will give 
Japan in her efforts toward judicial authority and complete 
sovereignty, seems worthy of the liberal attitude which the 
United States have always adopted towards this country." 
And the same official "journal, on October 11, 1886, added 
that "considering the attitude assumed and maintained by 
Great Britain in this matter, the fact that the United States 
of America , have, taken , up -an entirely. different position will 



OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS. 



5 9 I 



doubtless be construed into another evidence of America's 
friendly disposition to Japan, and of her readiness to sep- 
arate herself from the league of powers by which this 
empire has been held in virtual subjection for so many 
years." 

In Central America the diplomatic intervention of the 
United States has been exerted to very effective purpose. 
By article 35 of the treaty of 1846, entered into by the 
United States with New Grenada, now the Republic of 
Colombia, the Government of the latter country guaranteed 
to the Government and people of the United States the 
free and open transit of the Isthmus of Panama, in return 
for which the United States guaranteed the " neutrality " 
(properly the " sovereignty ") of Colombia over the Isth- 
mus. This undefined responsibility was undertaken by the 
United States in view of the importance of preserving the 
free and open transit of the Isthmus for the Government 
and citizens of the United States. On various occasions 
the Government of Colombia has shown itself unable to 
preserve the free and open transit. Such an occasion arose 
in 1885, when disturbances occurred in various parts of 
Colombian territory, and a band of lawless men took pos- 
session of the city of Colon (Aspinwall) and partially de- 
stroyed it. The transit being thus rendered uncertain, the 
United States intervened and restored order in such a man- 
ner as to at once protect the interests of this country and 
to earn the grateful recognition of the Colombian Govern- 
ment. 

The diplomatic intervention of the United States in the 
long pending boundary disputes between Nicaragua and 



tjQ2 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY 



Costa Rica has been attended with equally happy results. 
These matters of dispute had existed for more than thirty 
years, and involved questions of vital importance to both 
republics, growing out of doubts as to the validity of the 
Treaty of Limits entered into between the two countries on 
the 15th of April, 1858. The question as to the proper 
construction to be placed on that instrument was submitted 
to the arbitration of President Cleveland, who, on the 22d 
of March, 1888, rendered an award which settled all the 
long pending difficulties. 

, Among other important and successful diplomatic steps 
of the present administration has been the assertion of the 
rights of American missionaries and other American citi- 
zens in Turkey. Those rights, the extent of which has 
hitherto been in dispute, have been placed upon the solid 
ground of law and treaty, .the United States securing to 
the fullest extent for its citizens in Turkey the privileges 
enjoyed by the subjects of European powers. 

The treaty negotiated by this administration with China 
is recognized on the Pacific coast as affording a satisfactory 
solution of the Chinese immigration question. It effects a 
complete reversal of the policy established by the Bur- 
lingame treaty of 1869, and secured the relinquishment 
by the Chinese government of all treaty rights under 
which coolie labor has been brought into the United 
States. Opponents of the administration in Congress, who 
at first affected to believe that the treaty was imperfect and 
unsatisfactory, have since vied with each other in efforts 
to secure the passage of a bill to put its provisions into 



OUR FOREIGN. RELATIONS. 593 

effect, even to the extent of imperilling its final ratifica- 
tion. 

Lastly, it is believed that when the lately pending treaty 
with Great Britain is considered calmly and dispassionately, 
and without partisan misrepresentation, it will be found to 
mark out a basis of settlement upon which the long- 
existing differences on the fisheries can alone be removed. 
Unfortunately, it has been considered in the Senate in the 
heat of a political campaign, and discussed, on one side 
at least, apparently with a view to political effect almost 
exclusively. The provisions of the treaty and the facts of 
history were gravely mis-stated in most important particu- 
lars in the majority report which laid the treaty before the 
Senate. A resolution providing for the consideration of 
the treaty with open doors was first denounced by leading 
Republican Senators as injurious to the interests and dan- 
gerous to the peace of the country, and was overwhelm- 
ingly defeated by a yea and nay vote, only three Senators 
supporting the resolution. In less than forty-eight hours 
afterwards, in obedience to the mandate of a party caucus, 
that decision was reversed, and the Senate of the United 
States, made by the Constitution part of the treaty-making 
power of the government, descended from its high func- 
tions, and used its executive power to the advancement 
of party ends. Appeals to national prejudices took the 
place of calm discussion, and the merits of the treaty were 
obscured by persistent party distortion. Notwithstanding 
all this, it is. believed that the present failure to adjust 
long-pending differences as to the construction of the treaty 
of 1818 on the fisheries question is only temporary, and 



594 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



that eventually those difficulties will be settled substantially 
on the lines laid down in the Fisheries Convention of 
1887. 

In the meantime, the Senate by its course having ren- 
dered a present settlement by diplomatic action impossible, 
the President has asked Congress to aid him in maintain- 
ing the rights and redressing the wrongs of our citizens 
by the exercise of the legislative and executive powers in 
the shape of a comprehensive and effective retaliation bill. 
The emphatic approval of that message which has come 
up from the people is at once a proof of its wisdom and 
patriotism, and a rebuke to those who, from a narrow par- 
tisan standpoint, have assumed to call in question the sin- 
cerity of the President's motives. It can hardly be 
doubted that the line of action marked out by the admin- 
istration in this message, sustained as it is by the unani- 
mous voice of the country, will aid largely in bringing to 
a peaceful, honorable, and satisfactory conclusion the con- 
tentions over the interpretation of the treaty of 181 8 which 
have vexed our relations with Canada and Great Britain 
for nearly seventy years. 





■ IP 




WADE HAMPTON. 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE SOUTH. 



Hon. Wade Hampton, 
U. S. Senator. 

SINCE the war the South has had various appellations 
applied to her, some in a friendly spirit and others in 
an inimical one, and it seems to me that friends and 
enemies alike mistake the condition and feeling of that 
section of our country. I wish to speak of the South as 
she is, and I shall try to show how misapplied is the term 
of the " New South," and how substantial are the reasons 
why she should be " solid " against Republican principles, 
Republican policy, and Republican domination. There is 
no New South ; we have the old South, with all her 
devotion to the Constitution, her steadfast adherence to 
principle ; her strong conservative ideas, and her abhorrence 
of all extra-constitutional measures — all " camping outside 
the Constitution ; " a legislative expedient which could 
have been resorted to only by a party as revolutionary 
in its tendencies as is the Republican party of to-day, 
and as it has been from its origin. From its ignoble 
beginning to the present time that Republican party has 
been a revolutionary one, overriding the Constitution, 
trampling its most sacred guarantees under foot, and act- 

(597) 



598 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



ing only under that "higher call" which has- governed 
outlaws and brigands from time immemorial. 

We see constantly, in .the public press, recipes from Re- 
publican propagandists — who are generally charlatans — for 
breaking the solidarity of the Democratic column in that 
section of the country. " The solid South " is a bugbear 
to Republican eyes, while many of our warm friends at 
the North speak of the " New South " when they desire to 
use the language of praise. This latter appellation, though 
used as a compliment, and as such fully appreciated, is 
nevertheless a misnomer. Of course the changed condi- 
tion of things in the South has taught its people new 
methods, new purposes, new ideas, and new aspirations, but 
the characteristics of these people, which have given them 
such marked individuality from the first settlement of this 
country to the present time, are as fixed and as strong 
to-day as they ever were. It is, perhaps, the South in a 
new dress, meeting new duties, facing bravely new and 
untried responsibilities, but her sons possess now all the 
high virtues and qualities which enabled their fathers to 
shape the policy and to mould the destiny of this country 
in such large part in the past. In this sense we ha>ve the 
South, as of old, proud of her ample contributions to the 
honor, the glory and the prosperity of the country and 
with a patriotic desire to contribute in the future her full 
share of everything which will tend to make our whole 
country prosperous at home and respected abroad. Our 
friends at the North speak of the " New South " because 
of the recent wonderful development of the resources of 
that section, and of the rapid strides made by it in the 



THE SOUTH. 599 

march of material prosperity. I do not undervalue the 
advantages, to a people, of wealth, and I wish that our 
fair Southland could enjoy these to the fullest extent. 
But these advantages, valuable as they are, would be 
dearly bought by the sacrifice of the high qualities which 
have marked the character of the people of the South and 
which have enabled them to occupy so prominent and 
honorable a position in the past history of our country. 
It would ill become them now for the mere greed of gold 
to forsake the paths trod by their fathers, with so much 
honor to themselves and so much renown to the country. 
One of the great Roman satirists places in the mouth of a 
money-loving father — perhaps a prototype of some of our 
millionaires — the following words, which have formed the 
creed of many in some sections of our country: "Get 
money — honestly if you can — but get money by any means 
possible." God forbid that this debasing creed should ever 
become the main article ,of faith in the South, for it will 
be an evil day for her r ; and for the North as well, when 
her sons subordinate patriotism, honor, independence, in- 
tegrity and principle to bow down before the shrine of 
Mammon as the only god worthy of worship. 

" 111 fares the land to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay;" 

and if the accumulation of wealth has this effect, the men 
of the present generation in the South will be wise if they, 
even when confronted by poverty, shall follow steadily 
those principles and those methods which made their fore- 
fathers of the Old South great and virtuous. Let the Old 



600 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

South then retain her ancient place, and her old faith; 
let her grow wiser and stronger as all her true sons pray- 
that she may become; and let her exercise her influence 
in the future, as she exercised it in the past, to preserve 
the Constitution inviolate and to promote the best inter- 
ests of our whole country. These are the highest aspira- 
tions of her people, and if they remain true to the tradi- 
tions and teachings of the past they will keep the South 
now, as she has always been, the most conservative por- 
tion of the country. While our friends at the North, 
amazed at the progress made by the South, speak of the 
" New South " in terms of admiration, our enemies de- 
nounce the " Solid South," as if the fact that we give our 
undivided allegiance to the Democratic party was a grave 
crime. When the Southern States, by illegal and uncon- 
stitutional methods, were made practically solid for the 
Republican party, no remonstrance came from those who 
now declare that the Solid South is a menace to our insti- 
tutions. We hear no denunciation from Republicans be- 
cause Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and 
Rhode Island are solidly Republican, nor would we hear 
any should all the Northern States become solid for the 
" grand old party." Have not the Southern people the 
same right to choose their party affiliations as have the 
Northern ? " They pay their money and they take their 
choice," and that choice puts them in the great Demo- 
cratic column where, with but few exceptions, they have 
always stood. Every wrong, every injury, every injustice 
and every humiliation to which the South has been sub- 
jected has come from the Republican party, and how any 



THE SOUTH. 60! 

Southern man who has one spark of pride, of honor, or of 
decency can affiliate with that party passes comprehension. 
It is creditable to the South that none have done so who 
have jiot been bought or bribed ; for it is almost uni- 
versally true that whenever you see a Southern man who 
calls himself a Republican you will find an office-holder, 
or an office-seeker; one who is willing to sell his birth- 
right for a mess of pottage ! The old adage says, " Scratch 
a Russian and you will find a Tartar," and we might well 
paraphrase this dictum by saying, " Scratch a Southern Re- 
publican and you will find a renegade." These men are 
the "mercenaries" enlisted by the Republican party; the 
Dugald Dalgettys of political warfare, willing to sell them- 
selves to any party which will pay highest for their ser- 
vices; devoid of shame, as of honor; stragglers and de- 
serters from the great Democratic army, despised alike by 
those whom they seek to betray and by those to whom 
they have sold themselves. It is a source of just pride to 
the South that she numbers among her sons but few who 
have turned traitors to their own people, and all her true 
sons regard each of these renegades as 

** His country's curse, his children's shame; 
Outcasts of virtue, peace and fame." 

It can hardly be considered strange that the South 
should be solidly Democratic, when we compare the 
records of the two great national parties with reference to 
their treatment of that section. The war left the South 
bleeding at every pore ; the flower of her youth buried in 
her bosom ; her fields devastated ; her cities destroyed ; her 



602 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

property spoiled and ruin holding savage sway where once 
all had been peace, prosperity and happiness. She had 
been assured, time and again, that the war was not waged 
for pillage or conquest, but simply to preserve the JJnion, 
and that result effected she would resume her place in 
that Union with all her rights and privileges unimpaired. 
It was declared by the highest authorities that the seced- 
ing States were never out of the Union, and that they 
had but to lay down their arms to be again recognized as 
taking, of right, their ancient place among their sisters of 
the great Republic. But what was the result ? The South, 
exhausted by four years of terrific war, laid down the 
arms which had never been dishonored, and which have 
added a proud chapter to the courage and manhood of 
American citizenship, and her people, without mental res- 
ervation of any sort, accepted the terms offered by the 
victorious North. The paroles given to the surviving sol- 
diers of the Confederacy promised them protection in all 
their rights as citizens as long as they obeyed the laws 
of their respective States, and yet most of them were dis- 
franchised by the Republican party, and their States, which 
had been declared to be during the war integral parts of 
the Union, were treated as conquered provinces, placed 
under the control of military satraps. I need not recall 
the atrocities and the horrors of reconstruction as admin- 
istered by Republican domination, for the whole country 
now turns with abhorrence from that era of Republican 
rule. 

When the South asked for bread the Republicans gave 
her a stone and a serpent. Every act of the then domi- 



THE SOUTH. 



603 



nant party seemed to be inspired by the sole motive of 
humiliating the people of the South. The virtue, the 
intelligence, the experience, and the capital of the South 
were ruthlessly placed under the barbarous rule of vice, 
of ignorance, of folly and of poverty, and these ruling 
powers of the " New South " were upheld by federal 
soldiery camped in the capitals of sovereign States. These 
were the methods employed by the Republican party to 
conciliate the South and to bring about that " more per- 
fect union " contemplated by our fathers. That their plan 
failed need hardly be said, and while human nature is 
constituted as it is at present the Southern people will 
scarcely cherish any very warm feelings of esteem or 
gratitude towards that party. Fortunajtely for the South, 
and for the whole country, there was another great party 
existing in the Union ; one, the members of which were 
brave and loyal in their support of the maintenance of 
the Union and of the integrity of the Constitution ; who 
fought in honest advocacy of their convictions and who, 
when the war ended, strove to preserve to the States of 
the South the rights guaranteed by the Constitution 
This great party, which had directed and controlled the 
destiny of the Republic during the most honorable and 
glorious period of its existence ; which while striving to 
preserve the Union held that the Constitution should be 
maintained, and which recognized the rights of States as 
well as those pertaining to the general government, came 
to the rescue of the broken and impoverished South 
when the war ceased. When the sword was sheathed the 
Democrats of the North held out to us the olive-branch of 



604 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

peace; they extended the hand of friendship and they wel- 
comed us when returning to the Union as brethren. It is 
true that this party was in a minority, but they clung stead- 
ily to the faith of their fathers, not awed by the vast powers 
wielded by their opponents, nor seduced by the tempting 
allurements held out to them to share those powers if 
they would forsake their principles. When the war closed, 
the attitude of the Republican party towards the South 
was one of vindictive hostility ; the regularly organized 
governments of the Southern States were subverted; the 
States were put out of the Union and treated as conquered 
provinces ; their best citizens were disfranchised, and 
martial law supplanted the Constitution of the United 
States. In striking contrast to the methods adopted by 
the Republican party to govern the South — savoring more 
of Russian than American ideas — were the means advo- 
cated by the Democrats of the North for the restoration 
of the Union by the rehabilitation of the Southern States. 
They had given as freely of their blood and their treas- 
ure to support the cause of the Union during the war as 
the Republicans had done, and they demanded as strenu- 
ously as did the latter that the results accomplished by 
that war should be irrevocably maintained. But when the 
Southern people laid down their arms and resumed 
allegiance to the general government, the Northern Demo- 
crats wished to treat them, not as enemies, but as friends. 
They thought that a policy founded on kindness and con- 
ciliation would more quickly obliterate the animosities en- 
gendered by the war, and would more surely bring about 
peace, harmony and good-will between the late contending 



THE SOUTH. 



605 



sections, than one based on an unconstitutional and des- 
potic government of the Southern States as subjugated 
provinces by military autocrats. The Republican party 
held a sword as a menace over the bleeding South ; the 
Democrats tendered a brotherly greeting. Is it at Jl sur- 
prising that the people of the South turned instinctively, 
and unanimously, toward the party which offered peace 
and gave promise of future prosperity to their stricken 
land? They would have been more or less than human 
had they done otherwise. At all events they made their 
choice deliberately and for twenty years, although always 
in the minority, they have clung bravely and loyally to 
the Democratic party, for not only does every feeling of 
gratitude prompt them to give their allegiance to that 
party but every instinct of self-preservation teaches them to 
do so. The treatment these people received from the Re- 
publican party at the close of the war is too fresh in 
their memory for them to aid in restoring that party to 
power, and great as were the evils and the wrongs in- 
flicted by the Republicans on the South during their evil 
and vengeful domination, the calamities then suffered would 
seem trivial in comparison with those which the South 
would have to endure should the Republican party regain 
control of the government. 

It does not require the power of a seer or a prophet 
to make this prediction, for the signs that it would come 
to pass meet us on every side. The speeches of the Re- 
publicans in Congress ; the utterances of their partisan 
press ; all point to this result. And should this sectional 
party come again into power we should again have a re- 



606 TIIE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

currence, in the South, of a reign of ignorance, vice and 
corruption, such as disgraced Republican institutions 
during the carpet-bag rule over that section of the 
country. Nor would this be the worst fate that would 
befall the Southern States should the Republican party 
again obtain control of the government in all its branches ; 
for, should this calamity occur, the South will be put 
under such restrictions that every prospect of prosperity, 
every hope of honest government would be destroyed. 
The Southern people realize this danger which is impend- 
ing over them and they will exert all their efforts to 
avert it by keeping the Democratic party in power. And 
while success in this direction is a matter of vital con- 
sequence to them, it is scarcely less important to the 
material interests of the North, for the dawning prosperity 
of the South is adding to the wealth of the North, while 
financial ruin to the former would entail immeasurable 
distress to the latter. But this view of the great question 
is a narrow one, for it deals only with the idea that the 
pecuniary interests of the North are involved in the pros- 
perity, or the ruin, of the South. There is a much 
higher and nobler aspect to this question; one in which 
the whole country is deeply interested. Every patriotic 
man must feel that it is his duty to do all in his power 
to promote harmony between the late opposing sections 
of the country; to establish on a firm basis enduring 
peace, and to heal by reconciliation the cruel wounds in- 
flicted by the war. Interest and patriotism thus go hand 
in hand to bring about, to the whole country, abundant 
prosperity and abiding peace. 



THE SOUTH. 



607 



The business men of the North who are reaping so rich 
a harvest from the increased, and increasing, prosperity of 
the South will scarcely consent to remand that portion of 
the country to the condition from which it has emerged 
after years of privation and suffering, and which, should 
it be recalled, would entail ruin to the people of the South 
and incalculable damage to their own section. Every busi- 
ness man at the North knows that the people of the 
South are now among his best customers, for the South 
spends millions annually at the North. If we can have 
peace under Democratic rule the magnificent contribution 
poured by the South every year into the lap of the North 
will constantly increase ; but should the South be ruined 
by Republican rule, the North will be a great sufferer — 
almost as great as would be the South. Capital is pro- 
verbially sensitive and, with this fact in view, no sensible 
man can for a moment doubt the result of the Presidential 
election, for all the business interests* of the country demand 
the continuance of Democratic rule. That rule, under the 
brave, wise and patriotic direction of the present head of 
the executive department has not only brought unexampled 
prosperity to the whole country, but has given us peace. 
The people are too practical, too sensible, to take the 
reins of government from the hands of the able and pa- 
triotic citizen who now fills the executive chair to place 
them in the hands of one whose only claim is that he is 
the grandson of his grandfather! This is a fortunate cir- 
cumstance for him, but it is a very unfortunate one for old 
Tippecanoe ! We need a strong, able and vigorous man as 

President of the United States, and not a political nonentity, 
36 



608 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

even should the latter bear an honored and honorable 
name for the people know that 

"Pigmies are pigmies still, though perched on Alps." 

The chairman of the committee appointed to notify Gen- 
eral Harrison of his nomination seems to have had a just 
estimate of the character and calibre of the nominee of 
his party, for, in his speech informing him of the sur- 
prising result of the convention, he used the following 
language, if the public press reported him accurately: "It 
is true, distinguished gentlemen well known to the people, 
who were experienced in public affairs, illustrious in charac- 
ter and worthy of the people's confidence and support, 
were before the convention as candidates, and yet you were 
chosen." The speaker evidently had an intimate knowledge 
of his subject, and the country shares the wonder he ex- 
pressed, when, after calling attention to the fact that emi- 
nent gentlemen were before the convention, he exclaimed 
in unfeigned astonishment : " Yet you were chosen ! " After 
the election the wonder how and why he was " chosen " 
will be more intense and more unanswerable than at pres- 
ent, and future historians will tax their ingenuity to the 
utmost in the vain effort to solve this enigma. 

Perhaps the solution may be found in the advice given 
by the distinguished President of the Senate to the con- 
vention as to the sort of man who should be nominated. 
At all events the convention seemed to have acted on the 
theory he suggested, that some man without any record 
should be nominated, and thus we have Harrison as the 
Republican nominee for President. As some one has sagely 



THE SOUTH. 



609 



remarked, "if we can't beat him we can beat nobody." 
But while the nominee represents no great principle, and 
is only like the driftwood thrown up by some ocean wreck, 
he does represent to the South all that is antagonistic and 
hostile to the best interests of that portion of the country. 
During his service in the Senate he never did one gener- 
ous act, or uttered one generous sentiment, to his fellow- 
citizens of the South, nor has he done so in any of those 
innumerable platitudes with which he has been welcoming 
delegations, and fatiguing the public, since his nomination. 
His whole career has shown him to be a narrow, bigoted 
partisan, without the ability to comprehend the great, liv- 
ing issues of the day; whose ruling passion is an intense 
bitterness towards the South, and no greater calamity could 
befall the country than the election of such a man. But 
I have alluded to him only as an accident thrust into 
prominence in this great contest, and to show how fatal 
it would be to the interests not only of the South, but 
of the whole country, should he be elected President. It 
seems incredible that he could be elected, but when we 
remember how he was nominated we can but wonder if 
the days of miracles are over, and every sensible man 
should do all in his power to prevent another, and a 
greater miracle — his election. Under Democratic rule the 
South has made wonderful strides towards prosperity, and 
if this benignant rule can be continued, that section of 
the country will soon show its great power and its mag- 
nificent resources. The country does not realize the vast 
extent of their latent resources, nor has it given proper 
credit to the contribution made by the South towards sus- 



6 I0 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY." 

taining the national credit just after the war. Indeed, it 
may be said that national bankruptcy was averted in those 
dark days mainly by the contribution made by the South 
to the treasury of the United States. But, grand as was 
this tribute to the general prosperity of the country, it is 
insignificant when compared to that she is now yielding, 
and to what she will do in the near future, if we can 
enjoy peace under home rule, with an honest administra- 
tion by the general government. 

To show what great hopes may be entertained of the 
future prosperity of the South it is only necessary to 
glance at the results she has accomplished within the past 
few years under the most disadvantageous conditions. The 
limits prescribed for this article will not permit me to go 
into details on this point, nor indeed is it necessary for 
me to do so, for in the Times-Democrat, of New Orleans, 
of a recent date, there appeared an able, exhaustive, and 
significant presentation of the wonderful progress of the 
South, during the past year, in all the elements which 
contribute to the power, the prosperity, the wealth, and 
the happiness of a people, and I give extracts from this 
paper as containing fuller information, presented in a far 
stronger manner, than anything I could' offer. The article 
is headed properly, " The Great South," and as figures 
never lie, they tell here the true story of the work done 
by the South, and they show what magnificent success 
has crowned it: 

§ 

We present to-day a picture of the South as it now stands, 
showing the advance that has taken place in the last twelve 
months. It has been a year of steady progress. There may 



THE SOUTH. 6n 



have been less disposition toward speculation, and fewer so- 
called " booms." There is a marked falling off in the number 
of land companies formed and in land speculation generally ; 
there are fewer heavily capitalized companies, but the actual 
improvement is more than in any previous year. Thus, the 
increase in the assessments of the Southern States during the 
past twelve months is greater than for any similar period since 
1883, and is far more rapid than the population, showing that 
the South is not only getting wealthier as a section, but that 
its per capita wealth is increasing, being $171.1 1 to each person 
to-day, as compared with $148.42 in 1880. It should be 
incidentally noted that the improvement is really greater than 
these figures indicate, as the amount of Southern indebtedness, 
particularly farm mortgages, has been materially reduced. 

The doubter who may regard what the papers have had to 
say about the South as due to a disposition to " boom " things 
must be convinced by the official figures of the assessments. 
No one can imagine for a second that these exaggerate the 
value of property. On the contrary, there is a strong disposi- 
tion to undervalue it. When, therefore, the assessments show 
that the wealth of the South is increasing at a rate nearly 
twice as great as the population, it is evidence of prosperity 
which none can deny or dispute. The following is the assess- 
ment of the several Southern States during the census year 
and for 1887-88. The assessments now being made will show 
a still larger increase : 

1887-88. 1879-80. 

Alabama $214,925,869 $117,486,181 

Arkansas 148,868,206 86,409,364 

Florida 84,860,534 29,471,618 

Georgia 341,504,921 235,650,530 

Kentucky 483,491,690 3 I 8,037,875 

Louisiana 221,500,000 158, 587,495 

Mississippi. 129,887,254 106,594,708 

North Carolina 210,035,453 156,100,202 

South Carolina 141,495,056 132,037,986 

Tennessee .. 239,750,000 211,768,538 

Texas 650,412,401 304,493,163 

Virginia 374,c>43>338 3°8,455>i35 

Total $3,240,774,722 $2,164,792,795 

% 
In the census report on valuations, the Census Bureau in 
1880 estimated that the true value of property of all kinds in 



612 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

the South was much greater than the assessments ; 57 per 
cent, greater in Texas and Virginia, 43 per cent, in Georgia, 
the total being $5,725,000,000, as against an assessment of 
$2,164,792,795. On this basis the true valuation of the South 
to-day is $8,570,829,140, showing an increase during the past 
eight years of $2,845,829,140, with an improvement in the 
assessment of $1,075,981,927, or 54.75 per cent. 
The wealth to each inhabitant is : 



Assessed wealth per capita, 1880 $148.42 

Assessed wealth per capita, 1888 171.11 

Actual wealth per capita, 1888 452.43 

This improvement has kept on steadily from year to year, as 
the following figures will show: 

879 $2,164,792,795 

880 2,388,642,420 

881 2,473,620,423 

882 2,565,903,787 

883 2,782, 1 15,803 

884 2,887,834,861 

885 2,996,514,535 

886 3,028,536,879 

887 3,064,800,443 

888 3,240,774,722 

It will be noted that last year's improvement was consider- 
ably above the average. 

The rate of taxation has steadily declined during this 
period. The average in the South in 1870 and 1871 was nj^ 
mills; in 1880, 5 3-5 mills; in 1888,4 3 _ 5 mills, with a move- 
ment to-day in several of the States, notably Alabama, in favor 
of still greater reduction. 

THE RAILROADS. 

This increase has been in nearly every line. The first in- 
vestments taken hold of by Northern capitalists were the rail- 
roads. As early as 1880 they began putting money in them, 
and the result has been the doubling of railroad mileage in the 
South in the last few years. The building keeps up, for, dur- 
ing the first half of the present year, the Southern States led 
in the number of miles of road constructed, and claimed more 



THE SOUTH. 



6l3 



than 50 per cent, of the total mileage. The following is the 
condition of the South to-day in regard to railroads : 

Mileage Mileage 
July 1, 1888. July 1, 1880. 

Alabama 3,035 1,780 

Arkansas 2,448 822 

Florida 2,204 529 

Georgia 3,800 2,433 

Kentucky 2,414 1,560 

Louisiana 1,518 522 

Mississippi* 2,196 1,119 

North Carolina 2,450 1 ,440 

South Carolina 2,016 1,393 

Tennessee 2,395 1,816 

Texas 8,333 2,697 

Virginia * 2,870 1,697 

Total .. 35,679 17,808 

This railroad building has greatly developed all the other 
sources of wealth, expedited mining, manufactures, agriculture, 
etc., by giving all portions of the South easy communication 
with market. Nor should it be forgotten that this section con- 
tains what the East does not possess and what the West is 
greatly deficient in : a large extent of navigable rivers on which 
an active commerce is kept up. This greatly increases the 
mileage of transportation in the South as follows: 

Miles of railroads 35,679 

Miles of navigable streams 18,928 

Total mileage open to commerce 541607 



MANUFACTORIES. 

The South, which previous to the late war, and, indeed, for 
years afterward, had devoted itself almost exclusively to agri- 
culture, began about 1880 to develop industrially. The manu- 
facture of cotton goods had been carried on here and there 
with success ; the manufacture of the various cotton-seed 
products had also become an important industry ; but with 
these exceptions, the South had little to do with manufactures. 
The first experiments in this new line were a success, and it 
was soon found that this section was not only favorably situ- 
ated for manufactures, but possessed superior advantages as 



614 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



compared with New England and the East generally, which 
had hitherto monopolized manufactures, and particularly, of 
those raw materials which the South produces. 

These advantages have been so well enumerated before that 
they need be only briefly mentioned here : 

The South possesses in a greater degree than any other sec- 
tion of the country, all the raw materials entering chiefly into 
manufactures, and particularly coal, iron and other minerals, 
lumber, hides, wool and cotton. 

Its labor is intelligent, cheaper on account of the smaller 
cost of living, reliable and free from the hostile feeling to cap- 
ital to be met with elsewhere. 

It has cheap and abundant water-power (2,150,000 horse- 
power), well situated so as to be operated, within reach of the 
railroads and of markets, and fully one-third of which is avail- 
able for manufacturing purposes. 

It has an equable climate, which leaves the water-power 
always unfrozen, allows factories to keep open the year through 
and enables cotton mills to work without the machinery needed 
in New England to keep the yarn damp. 

The juxtaposition of coal and iron ore renders the manufac- 
ture of pig iron easier and cheaper, while the large streams 
which run through the pine forests perform the same service 
for timber, enabling the lumbermen to get their logs to the 
mill and their sawed lumber to market at a minimum cost. 

The home market is an excellent and improving one, taking 
all the mills can turn out for years to come, while to the South, 
Latin-America promises, from its propinquity, to be a large 
consumer of Southern manufactured goods. . 

With the advantages thus briefly stated, it is not to be won- 
dered at that new factories should be springing up in the 
South. Their number increases year after year, the following 
being the record of the first six months of each year since 
1886, as given by the Manufacturers' Record. 





, First six months of v 




1888. 1887. 1886. 


Iron furnace companies, 


6 20 7 


Machine shops, foundries, 


72 53 40 


Agricultural implement factories, 


6 it 7 


Flour mills, 


72 68 48 


Cotton mills, 


45 44 8 


Furniture factories, 


33 33 18 



THE SOUTH. 








, First 


six months of 




1888. 


1887. 


1886. 


Gas works, 


18 


24 


15 


Water works, 


53 


46 


15 


Carriage and wagon factories, 


36 


26 


11 


Electric light companies, 


80 


33 


17 


Mining and quarrying enterprises, 


260 . 


323 


70 


Lumber mills, 


450 


36i 


248 


Ice factories, 


33 


55 


30 


Canning factories, 


170 


49 


8 


Stove foundries, 


4 


2 


3 


Brick works. 


95 


116 


36 


Miscellaneous iron works, 


13 


47 


8 


Cotton compresses, 


20 


26 


7 


Cotton-seed-oil mills, 


15 


13 


2 


Miscellaneous enterprises, 


542 


5o5 


214 



615 



Total 2,023 1,855 8l2 

The amount of capital invested in these various enter- 
prises was $81,508,000, divided as follows among the several 
States : 

First six months of 1888. 

Alabama $14,940,000 

Arkansas 4,976,000 

Florida ' 2,030,000 

Georgia 5,792,000 

Kentucky 13,144,000 

Louisiana 1,776,000 

Maryland 3,129,000 

Mississippi 837,000 

North Carolina 3,999,000 

South Carolina 3,153,000 

Tennessee 6,025,000 

Texas II ,749,000 

Virginia 5,965,000 

West Virginia 3>993,ooo 

Total $81,508,000 



IRON. 

In manufactures nothing is more important than iron, and 
the South is becoming a great iron-producing country — 
not only supplying its own demand, but shipping pig to the 
North as well. The record for the past year shows : 



616 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



Blast furnaces Production in the last 

in operation, twelve mos., 1887-88. 1880. 

Virginia, 14 186,437 I7»9° 6 

North Carolina, 1 1,100 

Georgia, 2 40,691 25,099 

Alabama, 23 3 2 °>537 61,636 

Texas, 1 5,422 1,400 

Kentucky, 6 38,259 58,108 

Tennessee, 14 253,474 47.873 

Total, 61 845,920 212,022 

Total U. S., 290 7.154,499 

Production last year 746,059 

Increase over 1 886-87 99,861 

Increase over 1880 633,898 

COTTON GOODS. 

In the manufacture of cotton goods, the same relative increase 
is shown, the mills during the past eight years having grown 
from 170 to 294, the spindles from 713,989 to 1,518,145, the 
looms from 15,222 to 34,006, and the value of the product from 
$21,000,000 to $43,000,000. 

LUMBER. 

Finally, the lumbering operations have been greatly extended. 
The South stands to-day, not only the best timbered section of 
the country, but the best of the world, having 239,837,611 
acres, or 50.3 per cent, of its total area under timber. One 
single item is 250,000,000,000 feet of merchantable pine, worth 
some $10 per 1000, or nearly as much as the entire assessment 
of the South, and enough to supply the lumber demands of 
the whole country for years to come. 

There are now 11,242 establishments in the South sawing 
or planing lumber, employing 89,040 hands, and turning out 
products of a value of $91,980,960, as against 6,481 
establishments, 42,873 hands, and $48,319,963 of products in 
1880. 

VALUE OF PRODUCTS. 

It would take too much space to mention the other lines of 
manufactures. It is sufficient to say that, with few exceptions, 
all have grown and improved in the last few years. Especially 
noticeable is the improvement in the class of goods turned out. 
The original products of the Southern factories were generally 



THE SOUTH. 



6l 7 



of a rough or cheap character ; now they turn out finer goods 
of all kinds, manufacture pig iron into stoves, machinery, etc., 
and cotton into the finer grades of cloth. 

The following totals give an idea of the progress made dur- 
ing the past eight years in manufactures : 



State. 


Establish- 
ments. 


Capital. 


Hands. 


Value of Products 


1887-88. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Florida 


4,506 
2,100 
1,302 
6,920 
7,578 
3,018 
2,480 
6,33° 
3,271 
8, «o 
5,030 
8,220 

59,i85 

2,070 

1,202 

426 

3,593 
5.328 

1.553 
i,479 
3,802 
2,078 
4,326 
2,996 
5,7io 


$47,620,000 
12,850,000 
10.205,000 


38,900 
14,200 
11. 220 


$50,620,000 
15,386,000 
11,875,000 | 
72,412,000 

105,363,000 
52,630,000 
15,787,000 
37,870,000 

3i,975, J03 
70,470,000 

37,432,000 

83,268,000 


Georgia 


52,870,000 C7.?6o 


Kentucky 


89,666,000 
23,520,000 
10,301,000 
30,002,000 
22,204,000 
62,300,000 
22,755,000 
42,304,000 

$426,597,000 

$9,668,008 
2,953,130 
3,210,680 

20,672,410 

45,813,039 
11,462,468 

4,727,600 
13,045,639 
11,205,890 
20,092,815 

9,245,561 
26,968,992 

$179,366,230 


59,600 
35,320 
1 1 ,990 
36,300 

34,417 
51,820 

22,435 
66,591 


Louisiana 

Mississippi 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Tennessee 


Texas 


Virginia 




Total 


440,253 

9,100 

4,557 

5,604 

24,876 

37,391 
1 2, 1 64 

5,827 
18,110 
15,828 

22,445 
12,159 
46,184 


$585,088,103 

£13,565,504 

6,756,159 

5,546,480 

36,440,948 

75,483,377 

24,205,183 

7,518,302 

20,095,037 
16,738,000 
37,074,886 

20,719,928 

51,780,990 


1879-80. 

Alabama 

Arkansas 

Florida 

Georgia 


Kentucky 


Louisiana 


Mississippi 

North Carolina 

South Carolina 

Tennessee 


Texas 


Virginia 




Total 


34,563 


215,245 


$315,924,794 





AGRICULTURE. 

This industrial development was not at the expense of 
agriculture, for the South has planted and grown larger crops 
than ever before, and although the prices of farm products 
have generally ranged low, the total values have improved. 



6i8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



The yield for the past year has been, as compared with that 
of the census year : 

1888. 1879. 

Cotton $310,000,000 $227,893,000 

Corn 250,813,530 187,958,752 

Wheat 42,297,810 65,575,378 

Oats 34,955,15° 20,193,011 

Potatoes, hay, etc 95,000,000 69,478,313 

The value of these crops, however, do not fully indicate the 
improvement that has taken place, as prices have generally 
fallen during these eight years. The yield will show better the 
industry and activity of the Southern farmers. 

1887-88. 1879-80 

Cotton, bales 6,800,000 5,755,359 

Corn, bushels 492,415,000 333,121,290 

Wheat, bushels . 52,384,000 54,476,740 

Oats, bushels 81,566,000 43,478,600 

Total grain 626,305,000 431,074,630 

FARM PRODUCTS. 

The total value of farm products during the past season was 
#793,098,293. 

1887-88. 1879-80 

Alabama $67,823,000 $56,272,994 

Arkansas . . 64,230,000 43,796,261 

Florida 13,109,000 7>439>39 2 

Georgia 76,327,000 67,028,929 

Kentucky 75,336,000 63,850,155 

Louisiana 63,224,000 42,883,522 

Mississippi 68,126,000 63,701,844 

N. Carolina 57,320,000 5 1 ,729,61 1 

S. Carolina 46,968,293 41,969,749 

Tennessee *. 70,540,000 62,076,341 

Texas 136,975,000 65,204,329 

Virginia 53,120,000 45,726,221 

Total ^793, 98,293 $611,679,048 

The record in regard to live stock is as follows : 



-Value- 



1888. 1879. 

Horses $191,659,208 $127,502,759 

Mules 113,908,770 65,059,675 

Milch-cows 68,187,682 47,630,990 



THE SOUTH. 619 

( Value v 

1888. 1879. 

Oxen and other cattle 130,741,481 87,019,999 

Sheep 15,278,829 19,262,888 

Hogs 53,919,580 44,935,943 

Total £573>695,550 $39MI2,254 

Increase $182,283,296 

EDUCATION. 
While interested in manufactures and farming, the South 
has not overlooked or forgotten its public schools, and is able 
to present a very encouraging progress in this direction. It 
cannot and does not claim that it has yet been able to do all 
that it would like. The illiteracy that slavery, war and mis- 
rule left behind still prevails and defies the resources of the 
South to overcome, but that it is doing its duty, that it is mov- 
ing onward in education, is shown in the following figures of 
the amount expended by the several States for their public 
schools : 

1887-88. 1880. 1870. 

Alabama, #5 1 5,985 #375,465 #374,670 

Arkansas, 916,600 238,056 

Florida, 449,299 114,895 59»*46 

Georgia, 788,500 471,029 

Kentucky, 1,095,020 803,409 303,607 

Louisiana, 514,270 480,320 

Mississippi, 972,807 830,704 

North Carolina, 653,037 352,882 171,497 

South Carolina, 541,000 324,629 

Tennessee, 1,475,000 724,862 

Texas, 2,285,695 753,346 

Virginia, 1,535,289 946,109 592,856 

Total, #11,742,702 #6,415,796 

The following comparison gives some idea of the educational 
progress that has already been made : 

1887-88. 1879-80. 

Number of schools 62,038 45,031 

Number of teachers 60,520 43,6n 

Children enrolled 3,242,806 2,154,376 

Children in attendance 2,402,117 1,832,620 

Cost of schools #11,742,702 #6,415,706 

Enrolment of children 1870-71 1,016,163 

Enrolment of children 1879-80 2,154,376 

Enrolment of children 1887-88 3,242,806 



620 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



THE PROGRESS OF THE SOUTH. 

These figures speak for themselves. We know of no better 
way of presenting the development — industrial, agricultural, 
educational and otherwise — of the South than by a simple 
comparison of 1888 with 1880, which will show it in a manner 
that all can understand : 



Population 

Gross wealth 

"Wealth per capita 

Railroad mileage 

Manufactures — 

No. of establishments 

Capital 

Number of hands 

Value of products 

Cotton mills 

Spindles 

Looms 

Value of products of cotton mills. 

Minerals — 

Pig iron produced, tons 

Phosphate mined, tons 

Value of minerals produced... . 

Agriculture — 

Grain, bushels 

Cotton, bales 

Farm animals 

Live stock, value 

Fruit, value 

Total value of farm products. . . 

Education — ( 

Schools 

Children in attendance 

Expenditures for public schools. 



1888. 



18,942,858 

#3,240,774,722 

#171.11 

35,679 

59,185 

426,597,000 

440,253 

585,088,103 

294 

1,518,145 

34,006 

#43,000,000 

845,920 

432,757 
25,482,600 

626,305,000 

6,800,000 

44,830,972 

#573,695,55<> 

#19,421,380 

#793,098,293 

62,038 
2,402,117 

#11,742,702 



1880. 



Per 
cent, of 
incr'se. 



$2, 



14,639,714 

[64,792,795 
#148.42 
I7,8o8 

34,563 

179,366,230 

215,245 

315,924,794 

179 

713,989 

15,222 

#21,000,000 

212,722 
190,162 

3,347,445 

431,074,630 

5,755,359 

28,754,243 

#391,312,254 

9,103,113 
#611,697,048 

45,o3i 

1,832,620 

#6,415,706 



29.4 

49.8 

15.6 

100.0 

71.4 
1435 

II2.8 

85.4 

76.0 

II2.8 

123.4 

104.8 

397.8 

288.2 

760.6 

45.3 
18.4 
55.8 

46.4 

1 134 

29.7 

37.8 

36.7 
83.2 



Nothing that I could say would add strength to the mar- 
vellous exhibit made by these figures of the unequalled 
resources of the South. Most of these are latent and unde- 
veloped, but the Southern people, if undisturbed, will, by their 
pluck and energy, develop all these resources and thus add 
untold millions to the wealth of the country. It is for our 



THE SOUTH. 621 

fellow-citizens of the North to say whether this career of 
prosperity is to continue or whether it is to be blasted. Demo- 
cratic rule will insure to the South peace, prosperity and 
wealth, with all these blessings reacting on the North ; a 
return to Republican domination will bring absolute ruin to 
the fairest portion of the country and will thus bring disaster 
to the whole country. 



CHAPTER XIV 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



Hon. Benton McMillin, M. C. 

THE Democratic party is founded upon the idea that the 
people are capable of governing themselves. It be- 
lieves, in the language of the Constitution, that 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved 
to the States, respectively, or to the people. 

Wherever that party has doubted its constitutional right 
to act it has wisely declined action. Hence all legislation 
of doubtful constitutional authority, looking to an abridg- 
ment of the right of the citizen, or to a destruction of the 
rights of the States, has been resisted by the Democratic 
party. How sadly we have encroached in some respects 
upon these principles ! Take our election laws as an ex- 
ample. During the years of Democratic rule the people 
were left to control their own elections. No federal inter- 
ference either prevented or perverted the exercise of the 
elective franchise. But in an evil hour a different principle 
was adopted. The people had become accustomed to the 
use of forceful measures in war times, and taking advantage 

of this fact, the Republican party, then in power, not only 
(622) 




BENTON McMILLIN. 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 623 

used troops at the polls, but passed laws authorizing the 
appointment of deputy marshals and supervisors by United 
States judges to go to the ballot box and stand around 
that sacred palladium of our liberties ready to arrest, and 
actually arresting and carrying away, the citizen about to 
exercise the highest political right ever conferred upon 
man. 

The Democratic party resisted this in toto. They agreed 
with Jefferson, that if a man could not govern himself, it 
was dangerous to entrust him with the government of 
others. They believed in the virtue of the citizen and the 
integrity of the State, and that the two would not only 
enact but execute* sufficient laws to insure honest elections. 

The extra session of the Forty-sixth Congress was 
brought about by the refusal of Democracy to yield the 
right of the federal government to use force at the polls. 
The long debate that resulted and the fierce contest over 
it at last brought to the statute books a provision by 
which the use of troops at polling places was prevented, 
and public attention was called to the danger of using any 
kind of force. What has been the result of these force 
statutes? They have demonstrated that it is impossi- 
ble to have freedom in one part of the country and force 
and slavery in the other. In the city of Cincinnati more 
than half a thousand deputy marshals were appointed by 
judges of the United States courts to hound down voters, 
and in their discretion take them from the polls. This 
might be done without warrant ; without indictment ; without 
information ; without any of those steps which have always 

been regarded by the Democratic party as essential to the 
37 



624 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



maintenance of freedom. The aim of the Democratic party 
is to restore the government back to the people ; to deprive 
the citizen of only so much of his natural liberty as to pre- 
vent him from injuring others. 

A difficulty which confronted the Democratic party soon 
after the organization of the government and the accession 
of that party to power was the right still claimed and exer- 
cised by the British government, then mistress of the seas, 
by reason of her great navy, to board our vessels on the 
broad ocean and search for and seize the seamen there en- 
gaged by our people. There was never a bolder resistance 
than that made by the Democratic party to this assumption 
of right on the part of the British empire. Our navy was 
not equal to theirs ; we did not equal them in numbers nor 
in prestige on the water. But, believing that " thrice armed 
is he who hath his quarrel just," a Democratic administra- 
tion challenged this authority, resisted its enforcement, and 
plunged into the war of 1812 to break the shackles of 
the sea. 

President Madison sent General Jackson to New Orleans 
to resist the British and maintain our rights at the point 
of the bayonet. It is the purpose of this chapter to call 
attention to only so much history as is necessary to illus- 
trate what has been the action of the Democratic party, 
thereby ascertaining what are its aims. It is, therefore, 
sufficient merely to recount that blood flowed freely; en- 
gagement after engagement took place on the waters; the 
Capitol of the great Republic fell ; its public buildings 
were burned, and 'there was everything to discourage the 
American people; ib,ut with ., a v /determination to do or die, 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



625 



Democracy hurled the forces of the nation against our 
antagonist; the battle of New Orleans with all its glory 
was won ; peace was restored, and the freedom of American 
ships from search, and American seamen from seizure, has 
been the blessed heritage, through all administrations, both 
Democratic and otherwise in this country, from that day, 
and we may hope will be down to the end of time. 

Early in its administration of the government the Demo- 
cratic party had to meet another grave difficulty. After 
the overthrow of the first Napoleon, France, Russia, Aus- 
tria and Prussia combined in what is known in history as 
" a holy alliance " for the purpose of maintaining the then 
status of monarchical affairs. Farther on it became evident 
to Mr. Monroe, the President of the United States, that this 
" holy alliance " contemplated ultimately the exercise of 
dominion and control over a portion of the South Ameri- 
can colonies, which had formerly belonged to Spain and 
were struggling, in a greater or less degree, to establish 
and maintain independence. 

The Democratic party realized that our own republican 
institutions were threatened if the right of the kingdoms 
and monarchies of the earth to come to this continent and 
dictate rulers and dominion went unquestioned. Therefore 
for the purpose of making known the position of the United 
States touching this foreign interference and to prevent the 
establishment of governments inimical to our free republic, 
Mr. Monroe promulgated the immortal message containing 
what has since been known as the " Monroe Doctrine." 
It is found in. the following paragraphs of the message : 



fi 2 6 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

We owe it to candor and to the amicable relations existing: 
between the United States and the allied powers to declare 
that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend 
their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous 
to our peace and safety. With the existing colonies or de- 
pendencies of any European power we have not interfered 
and shall not interfere ; but with the governments which 
have declared their independence and maintained it, and 
whose independence we have on great considerations and 
just principles acknowledged, we could not view an interpo- 
sition for oppressing them or controlling in any other manner 
their destiny by any European power in any other light than 
as a manifestation of an unfriendly disposition towards the 
United States. 

Again : 

The American continents should no longer be subjects for 
any new European colonial settlements. 

This principle has never been varied from by any admin- 
istration of the government except one, and never by a 
Democratic administration. When the auxiliary army of 
French and Belgians invaded Mexico for the purpose of 
aiding Maximilian of Austria to establish a throne for him- 
self in Mexico, Mr. Motley, our representative to Vienna, 
in October, 1863, expressed great alarm to his home gov- 
ernment at the Maximilian venture. He desired instruc- 
tions authorizing him to demand an explanation of the 
Austrian government, and called the attention of Mr. Sew- 
ard, the Secretary of State, to the Monroe doctrine pro- 
mulgated in 1823, under circumstances even less threaten- 
ing than those which hung over our nearest neighbors. 
But so far from taking the view of our rights and duty 
which had characterized all his predecessors, Mr. Seward 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



627 



gave instructions to our minister not to interfere. The 
following passage in his letter on the subject may be 
noted as the one instance in which one occupying the high 
station of Secretary of State in an American government 
has declined to uphold the doctrine promulgated by Mr. 
Monroe; but it is to be hoped that this will never be fol- 
lowed as a precedent. 

France has invaded Mexico, and war exists between the 
two countries. The United States hold in regard to those two 
States and their conflict the same principles that they hold in 
relation to all other nations and their mutual wars. They 
have neither a right or any disposition to intervene by force 
in the internal affairs of Mexico, whether to establish or 
maintain a republican or even a domestic government there, 
or to overthrow an imperial or foreign one, if Mexico shall 
choose to establish or accept it. 

What Mr. Monroe so strongly expressed has been main- 
tained by all Democratic administrations, and it is the just 
boast of our people that not one jot or tittle of the faith 
he then proclaimed has been surrendered by those of his 
party to whom government has been entrusted. 

The Democratic party found the United States " a 
pent-up Utica." We had no Florida, Louisiana, or Texas ; 
no Arkansas, Missouri, or Minnesota ; no Colorado, Kansas 
or Nebraska; no California, Nevada, or Oregon; no Arizona, 
New Mexico, or Indian Territory. In fact, that magnificent 
country west of the Mississippi river, which is now organized 
into flourishing Territories or great States, and is the home 
of many millions of prosperous people, was owned by foreign 
powers or dominated by kings and potentates. This was 
our condition when Mr. Jefferson became President in 1 80 1. 



6 2 8 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

Spain had threatened to deny us the right to navigate the 
Mississippi, and then sold her Louisiana possessions to 
France. Could a condition more hampered than ours be 
conceived, when the Spanish king or government owned 
Florida; France, led on by the mighty Napoleon, owned 
the mouth of the Mississippi river and its western banks, 
and Mexico in possession of the balance of the West, 
with the gold and silver mines and fertile prairies which 
have since furnished our people their currency and our 
poor their homes? But thanks be to Jefferson, the man 
who wrote the Declaration of Independence and laid the 
foundation of the Democratic party was equal to the great 
emergency. 

He believed the best interests of the country demanded 
that this should be a great inter-ocean republic, and that 
the Pacific ocean, and not the Mississippi river, should be 
our western boundary. He went to work to extend our 
territory. Taking advantage of the straightened relations 
between England and France, he opened negotiations for 
the purchase of the mouth of the Mississippi, urging upon 
that government that in case of war with England the 
latter would seize these possessions and either hold them 
or cause France to spend vast sums in their defense. Who 
were the parties to this negotiation? Seldom in the history 
of the world have such intellectual forces met. On the 
one side was the great Napoleon and his renowned diplo- 
mat, Talleyrand ; on the other, Mr. Jefferson, the greatest 
political philosopher of the worfd, and Mr. Monroe, after- 
ward President. The latter was also assisted by Mr. Liv- 
ingston. The victory was ours, and we obtained the terri- 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



629 



tory. When Napoleon signed the transfer he said : " I 
know that nation which owns the valley of the Mississippi 
will be the greatest on earth. I prefer letting it go to the 
United States rather than to any other power because that 
government will at least be neutral toward France." By 
this we obtained 1,182,752 square miles. 

Our next acquisition of territory was the purchase of 
Florida from Spain, by which we added 59,900 square 
miles. Then came the annexation of Texas, which in- 
creased the national domain 376,100 square miles. By the 
Mexican war and the treaty with Mexico we obtained 
522,500 square miles. Next we pui chased of Mexico by 
subsequent treaty 45,500 square miles, making, with the 
fraction I have omitted for brevity, 2,186,946 square miles, 
or 1,399,645,000 acres. 

When the Democratic party had held the reins of gov- 
ernment less than sixty years, it could make the proud 
boast that it had enlarged the United States government 
to about three times its original size ; had added territory 
ten times as large as France. Why, the territory thus 
acquired under Democratic rule was more than twenty- 
seven acres for each hour since Adam was placed in the 
Garden of Eden. Regiments of lives and millions of treas- 
ure had been expended in it. But our flag floated from 
ocean to ocean, and France and Spain no longer had a 
foothold on our continent. 

Not only did the Democratic party wisely acquire, but 
it faithfully kept this land for " homes for the homeless." 
They hoped to place it forever beyond the grasp of 
monopolists and keep it always within the reach of bona 



630 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



fide settlers. And while the Democratic sentinels remained 
on the watch-tower the effort was successful. But at last 
divisions came among Democrats, and in i860 they lost 
control of the government and the custody of these lands. 

What became of them then? The party then in power, 
disregarding the best interests of the masses, gave away 
in ten (10) years 195,000,000 acres of these lands to rail- 
road corporations. This is so vast an amount that we 
can only comprehend it by comparison. It is many times 
more than all Palestine, the home of God's chosen people. 
It is more than all England, Ireland, Switzerland and the 
Netherlands combined. Empires of land wasted, and for 
what? To build up corporations which threaten to 
dominate the government which created them. 

"Nor is this all. Under the act of Congress granting 
the land, if the roads were not built in a specified time, 
the lands were to be forfeited. Part of the roads were 
not so built. It will be said, "Surely, no man could ob- 
ject to reclaiming the land." 

But behold the difference when Democracy again got 
control. The last House of Representatives was Demo- 
cratic, and we passed through that body bills declaring 
more than 70,000,000 acres forfeited. 

The Democratic party is non-sectional. Its aim has 
ever been to prevent sectional discord, and it has at all 
times declined to foment sectional strifes. It numbers 
among its followers, equally favored, people of every State 
and every locality. Its organizers tried to lay its founda- 
tions broad and deep and to make its principles so equit- 
able that they would be a blessing to the American 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 63 1 

citizen, whether he lived on the Atlantic or the Pacific, 
on the lakes or the Gulf. It has never attained or main- 
tained power by appealing to sectional hate or by foment- 
ing sectional strifes. 

One of the greatest men it has ever numbered among 
its followers, General Jackson, before retiring from the 
Presidential office, in # his farewell address, warned his 
countrymen against sectional strife. The following extract 
from this patriotic address very forcibly defines the posi- 
tion of the Democratic party on this subject both then 
and now : 

We behold systematic efforts publicly made to sow the 
seeds of discord between different parts of the United States 
and to place party divisions directly upon geographical dis- 
tinctions; to excite the South against the North and the 
North against the South and to force into the controversy the 
most delicate and exciting topics upon which it is impossible 
that a large portion of the Union can ever speak without 
strong emotions. Appeals, too, are constantly made to sec- 
tional interests, in order to influence the election of the chief 
magistrate, as if it were desired that he should favor a particu- 
lar quarter of the country instead of fulfilling the duties of his 
station with impartial justice to all, and the possible dissolu- 
tion of the Union has at length become an ordinary and 
familiar subject of discussion. Has the warning voice of 
Washington been forgotten, or have designs already been 
formed to sever the Union ? Let it not be supposed that I 
impute to all those who have taken an active part in these un- 
wise and unprofitable discussions a want of patriotism or of 
public virtue. The honorable feelings of State pride and local 
attachments find a place in the bosoms of the most enlightened 
and pure. But while such men are conscious of their own in- 
tegrity and honesty of purpose, they ought never to forget 
that the citizens of other States are their political brethren, 
and that, however mistaken they may be in their views, the 
great body of them are equally honest and upright themselves. 



632 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



Mutual suspicion and reproaches may in time create mutual 
hostility, and artful and designing men will always be found 
who are ready to foment these fatal divisions and to inflame 
the natural jealousies of different sections of the country. The 
history of the world is full of such examples, and especially 
the history of republics. 

The Democratic party stands to-day battling for the 
same faith that was promulgated by the hero of New Or- 
leans half a century ago. Time has but emphasized the 
wisdom of his admonitions; subsequent events have dem- 
onstrated the correctness of his prophecy! 

Much stress is now being laid upon the condition of our 
workingmen. Every argument that can be adduced is 
being brought forward to convince them that their wages 
have been elevated and maintained alone by reason of ex- 
cessive rates of taxation. Of all the agencies which have 
operated for the elevation and maintenance of high wages 
for the laborers of this country the most potent has been* 
the acquisition of this immense public domain by the Dem- 
ocratic party above mentioned, thereby placing it in the 
reach of any laborer whose wages were not adequate to 
the support of himself and his family to acquire a home 
under our liberal homestead laws by merely reclaiming it 
from the forest. This has tended to prevent the over- 
crowding of population, and all the misery that that 
brings. Believing this to be true, it has been the constant 
effort of the Democratic party, since it regained control 
of either branch of the government, to reclaim the lands 
so recklessly squandered during Republican administra- 
tions. Through the action of the present Democratic ad- 
ministration and the Democratic House of Representatives 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 633 

we have already reclaimed more than 80,000,000 acres, 
and still have under process of reclamation in the Land 
Office and pending in Congress propositions for the re- 
clamation of 64,000,000 acres more. And it is to be said 
to the everlasting credit of the party that originally ac- 
quired these lands that not one section has been permitted 
to be squandered by any Congress in which it controlled 
either branch, from the acquisition of its control of the 
House in 1875 till now. 

It has been the constant aim of the Democratic party 
to give to the people a wise and frugal government which 
should " not take from the mouth of labor the bread it had 
earned." It has striven to make its tax laws just, so as to 
collect no more taxes than were necessary for the eco- 
nomical administration of the government. All revenues 
are raised by taxation. This, of course, includes both in- 
ternal revenue and custom duties. A high rate imposes 
high taxes; a low rate low taxes. Every exertion should 
be made to prevent the government from taking in any 
form or under any pretext from the people more money 
than is necessary to run the government economically and 
to pay its debts and pension obligations. Any other 
theory practised will result in the extraction of money from 
commerce that is necessary to its greatest prosperity. The 
hoarding of vast sums in the United States Treasury 
breeds a multitude of evils too great to be enumerated. 
The withdrawal of the money from trade contracts prices, 
diminishes the wages of labor and the demand for the 
products of labor. It produces extravagant legislation and 
schemes of public plundering that would not be dreamed 



634 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



of if the revenues were confined to the legitimate needs of 
government. It corrupts legislation in almost every con- 
ceivable way. The Democratic party has raised its reve- 
nues principally at the custom-house, and will continue 
to do so. In the imposition of import duties necessary to 
carry on the government it has ever exercised, and will 
continue to exercise, a wise discretion, and will so adjust 
'them as to result in the greatest good to the greatest 
number of our people. Ah ! more, there is no Democrat 
who will not rejoice at any benefits flowing to our people 
from the exercise of wise discretion in levying of the 
taxes necessary; but whenever government goes beyond 
what it requires, and puts its hands into the pockets of 
labor and takes out more money than it needs, it has 
started on the road to robbery, and can but land at the 
goal of ruin. 

It has sometimes been said that there is no great differ- 
ence between Republicanism and Democracy, but judging 
the parties by their announcements and practises, we must 
conclude there are great differences. The Republican 
party has espoused the political faith of Hamilton and the 
Federalists and extended it, whilst the Democracy adheres 
to the principles of Jefferson. Mr. Hamilton said : 

All communities divide themselves into the few and the 
many — the rich and the well-born and the masses of the 
people. The people are turbulent and changeable ; they 
seldom judge or determine right. Give, therefore, the first 
class, the rich and well-born, a distinct, permanent share in the 
I government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second 
— the masses of the people — and will maintain good govern- 
ment. Nothing but a permanent body, can check the im- 
prudence of democracy. 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



635 



Contrast with this the views of Mr. Jefferson, as ex- 
pressed in the following paragraph : 

Sometimes it has been said that man cannot be trusted 
with the government of himself. Can he then be entrusted 
with the government of others ? The sum of good govern- 
ment is a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain 
men from injuring one another, which shall leave men other- 
wise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and im- 
provement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the 
bread it has earned. 

Again Mr. Jefferson in his first inaugural address lays down 
the following as the essential principles of good govern- 
ment: 

Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or 
persuasion, religious or political ; peace, commerce, and honest 
friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; the 
support of the State governments in all their rights as the most 
competent administration for our domestic concerns and the 
surest bulwark against anti-republican tendencies; the preser- 
vation of the general government in all its constitutional vigor 
as the sheet-anchor of peace at home and safety abroad ; a 
jealous care of the right of election by the people; a mild and 
safe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the sword of 
revolution where peaceable remedies are unprovided ; absolute 
acquiescence in the decision of the majority, the vital principle 
of the republics, from which there is no appeal but to force, 
the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism ; a well- 
disciplined militia; economy in the public expenses, that labor 
may be lightly burdened ; the honest payment of pur debt, 
and sacred preservation of the public faith; encouragement of 
agriculture, and of commerce, its handmaid; the diffusion of 
information, and the arrangement of all abuses at the bar of 
public reason ; freedom of religion ; freedom of the press ; 
freedom of the person under the protection of habeas corpus, 
and trial by juries impartially selected. 



6 3 6 



THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



These are the principles of Democracy. They have con- 
stituted its political creed ever since it was a party. They are 
the text for our political instruction. They should be the 
touchstone by which to try those who seek votes. 

The principles of Jefferson, who was the draughtsman 
of the Declaration of Independence, have thus been briefly 
commented upon. Its principles under various administra- 
tions and under all exigencies have been recounted. What 
a glorious chapter of American history these declarations 
and these principles make ! Take that which is democratic 
and which was promulgated or performed by the Demo- 
cratic party from our annals, and how sadly they would be 
deficient. And it has been shown not only that it was a 
Democrat who promulgated the great fundamental prin- 
ciples of 1 80 1, but a Democratic administration that car- 
ried on the war of 181 2; a Democratic administration that 
promulgated the Monroe doctrine, which is the faith of 
every American citizen to-day; a Democratic administration 
that extended our borders by the annexation of Texas 
and the acquisition of territory from Mexico. The party 
has been the conservator of individual liberty and the de- 
fender of the rights of the States, and has maintained the 
integrity and constitutional vigor of the Union. What hal- 
lowed memories cluster around these actions of the leaders 
of Democratic thought! What blessings are to flow from 
their pure administration ; their clear conception of the 
theory of our government; their stern integrity, and the 
maintenance of that equipoise between individual rights, re- 
served rights of the States and the constitutional rights of 
the general government, by which alone we can keep that 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



637 



simplicity and purity which was conceived by our fathers 
and through which alone we can send down to posterity 
the beneficent institutions for which they struggled. 

We are sometimes asked what has the Democratic party 
done? When we look back and see the difficulties it en- 
countered and the obstacles it had to overcome, instead of 
complaining that it has not done more, we wonder that it 
has been able to do so much. For twenty-seven years it 
has not had at any time the President and both branches 
of Congress. Whenever it has attempted reform for the 
last twenty years it has had to combat the Republican 
party in control of some branch of the government. 
After the war closed it found its enemy, the Republican 
party, intrenched with power, holding every branch of the 
government. It had the House and the Senate by more 
than three-fourths majority. It had an army of one hun- 
dred thousand officers ready to do its bidding at a nod. 
It found the citizen disfranchised, driven from the polls. 
It placed the ballot in his hands and bade him go forth 
as a free man and exercise the rights his fathers gave him. 
Over the veto of President Hayes it recoined the silver 
dollar and started it back to the pockets of the people. 
It stopped the reckless giving away of public lands. As 
stated above, not an acre has been wasted since the 
Democrats got either house of Congress after the war. It 
found proscriptive jurors, test oaths on the statute books. 
Before your free-born citizen could sit on a jury in the 
federal courts, in some of the States, if the law was 
strictly administered, he must take these oaths. It re- 
pealed the law imposing them, and made good citizen- 



638 THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 

ship and fidelity to the Constitution the test of fitness. 
It has secured the people impartial- juries. It found Con- 
gress annually raiding the treasury, and perennially empty- 
ing its vaults, by the most extravagant appropriations ever 
planned by a prodigal or voted for by a faithless public 
servant. And it inaugurated retrenchment. It found mil- 
lions squandered on a rotting and worthless navy, and 
under the administration of our wise and fearless Presi- 
dent, Cleveland, by judicious expenditure, is again placing 
on the water vessels of which the people may be justly 
proud. 

The Democratic party claimed that the government 
ought not to force its paper upon the citizens, while it 
refused to receive it for government dues, and this reform 
has been inaugurated, giving a uniform currency for all. 
And, finally, what is more than all for the integrity and 
the perpetuity of our system, it hovered around these dis- 
mantled and dismembered States of our magnolia land in 
the dark hour of their desolation. It held that while the 
Union was indestructible, it was composed of indestructible 
States. One by one it gathered them up and set them 
back on terms of equality in the national firmament, where 
they cluster and shine, growing brighter and brighter as 
the years roll on. Many other things might be said, but 
Democracy needs no eulogy save a truthful statement of 
what it has done. 

The Democracy ruled the country for nearly seventy 
years. When did it ever turn out the officers of a State 
elected by the people and put in those who were not? 
When did it disperse by military force the Legislature of a 



AIMS OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 



639 



State lawfully assembled? When did it disfranchise free- 
born citizens ? When did it send troops to the polls or 
claim the propriety of doing so ? W T hen did it send deputy 
United States Marshals to the polls, having no higher 
authority than the policeman's club and no higher ambi- 
tion than to do henchmen's service, to arrest and harass 
our free-born American citizens ? When did it flood your 
federal courts with jurisdiction filched from the State 
courts ? When did it demonetize silver or issue Treasury 
warrants which it refused to take in payment of govern- 
ment dues ? When did it give sixty-four millions of dol- 
lars in bonds to railroad corporations ? When did it tax 
the salaries of a hundred thousand officers for campaign 
purposes, threatening expulsion from office if the payment 
was refused ? When did it ever pass through its Con- 
gress laws that were violations of the Constitution ? 
Never ! Never ! ! Never ! ! ! 

To preserve the principles so admirably expressed by 
Jefferson, and maintain the liberty of the citizen, the 
rights of the States and the constitutional vigor and in- 
tegrity of the Union have been and will continue to be 
the "Aims of the Democratic Party." 






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